Coles v. Commonwealth
| Decision Date | 19 April 2022 |
| Docket Number | 0930-21-2 |
| Parties | EDWARD WILLIAM COLES, JR. v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA |
| Court | Virginia Court of Appeals |
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF CAROLINE COUNTY Sarah L. Deneke, Judge
Maureen L. White for appellant.
Justin B. Hill, Assistant Attorney General (Jason S. Miy ares Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.
Present: Judges Huff, Athey and Fulton Argued by videoconference
Edward William Coles, Jr., appeals his convictions, from a bench trial, of statutory burglary and robbery, in violation of Code §§ 18.2-91 and 18.2-58.[1] Appellant asserts that the Caroline County Circuit Court (the “trial court”) erred in finding the evidence sufficient to convict him of statutory burglary and robbery. For the following reasons, this Court disagrees and affirms his convictions.
On appeal, this Court “review[s] the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, ” the prevailing party at trial. Clanton v. Commonwealth, 53 Va.App 561, 564 (2009) (en banc). Accordingly, the Court must “discard the evidence of the accused in conflict with that of the Commonwealth, and regard as true all the credible evidence favorable to the Commonwealth and all fair inferences that may be drawn therefrom." Kelly v. Commonwealth, 4 1 Va.App. 250, 254 (2003) (en banc) (quoting Watkins v. Commonwealth, 26 Va.App. 335, 348 (1998)).
In the afternoon on May 13, 2020, Susan Zeller was sitting in her living room when appellant opened her front door. Susan did not know appellant and yelled at him to “get out of [her] house.” Appellant said, “[Y]ou're just tripping, ” and left. Susan locked the door behind him, grabbed her phone, and fled out the back door to the garden where her husband, Frederick Zeller, was working.
Susan told Frederick that a man had just come into their home. Frederick told Susan to call 911, and he went inside to investigate. Frederick did not see anyone at the house, and he retrieved his nine-millimeter Ruger from their first-floor bedroom. The Ruger was loaded with Remington target ammunition and holstered. After retrieving his gun, Frederick heard a noise. He ventured into the living room and saw that the door had been broken. The molding was cracked and the door-jam and frame torn.
Frederick heard noises upstairs so he went to the staircase and shouted for the person to get out. Frederick heard movement and saw appellant descend the stairs. Frederick repeatedly demanded that appellant leave, but appellant refused. Appellant then asked Frederick if he had a gun and began to walk toward Frederick. Frederick recently had been hospitalized and was unable to run, but he turned and walked away as fast as he could. Appellant followed and continued yelling at Frederick as they traveled out of the house. Eventually, appellant caught up with Frederick and grabbed him from behind. A struggle for the gun ensued. When appellant disarmed Frederick, Frederick believed he was going to die.
While Frederick was inside the house, Susan spoke with a 911 dispatcher who asked Susan what kind of car appellant drove. As Susan approached the vehicle, she saw Frederick and appellant leave the house and appellant disarm Frederick. Moments later, Frederick reached Susan. Frederick began to relate to the 911 dispatcher what just occurred. As Frederick was relating his encounter, he heard multiple gunshots.
When Caroline County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Dan Holmes arrived at the Zellers' residence, Frederick explained to him that he had been in a physical altercation with a large man, who had taken his firearm and was now in the residence. Deputy Holmes told Frederick to go to the wood line at the back of the residence, and he waited behind his patrol car until other units arrived.
As Deputy Holmes waited, appellant appeared in the entry way to the porch area of the residence and had a small black firearm in his hand. Deputy Holmes ordered appellant to drop the handgun and come outside. After twenty to thirty seconds, appellant retreated inside. Deputy Holmes testified that appellant stood ten to fifteen yards away from him at the time of this exchange.
Caroline County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Miller arrived shortly thereafter as backup. Moments later, appellant exited the residence naked. After the officers arrested appellant, Deputy Miller spoke with Susan and Frederick and began investigating the scene.
Appellant's black sedan was parked outside the residence. There was a large hole in the car's front passenger-side window and several spent Remington nine-millimeter shell casings in the seats. There was also a bullet hole in the center of the sedan's dashboard.
Inside the house, deputies retrieved a Ruger nine-millimeter handgun and a magazine on the floor of a small room downstairs. In the living room, deputies found bullet-entry holes and recovered spent nine-millimeter bullets. Deputy Miller testified that “[i]f you were to draw a line from the hole in [the car's passenger-side] window to the house where the bullet holes were entering the house, it would be a straight line.” Police found appellant's clothes in a small room upstairs.
Upon the conclusion of the Commonwealth's evidence, appellant made a motion to strike, arguing that the Commonwealth failed to prove his intent to steal as to the robbery charge. He claimed no evidence showed he intended to flee with the gun. He emphasized that the gun was recovered in a separate room from where his clothes were and nothing else was missing from the house. As to the statutory burglary charge, appellant argued the Commonwealth failed to show that he intended to commit larceny, assault and battery, or some other felony. He noted again that nothing was missing in the house. Additionally, the struggle for the gun occurred outside the home and he claimed that he only took the firearm because he feared he would be shot. The trial court denied the motions to strike as to the burglary and robbery charges.
Appellant then testified in his own defense, giving his own version of the events. He stated that he was traveling from Washington, D.C., to Henrico County, Virginia, on business. Having never traveled that far south, he relied completely on his phone's GPS. As he was driving, he realized that his phone was not charging but was in fact dead. He got off Interstate 95 and looked for a place where he could charge his phone. First he stopped at a McDonald's, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the dining room was closed. Then appellant tried to charge his phone at the Exxon gas station across the street, but the store was closed. While pumping gas at the Exxon, a woman informed appellant that he could charge his phone at a guard post to a gated community not far from the gas station. He tried to follow the woman's directions but almost immediately got lost, and he pulled off onto a gravel driveway.
As he sat in the driveway attempting to charge his phone, a man knocked on his window. Thinking that the man may be able to help him, he rolled down his window. The man, who he claimed was Frederick, asked appellant what he was doing. Appellant began to explain that he was lost and needed to charge his phone. But before he could finish Frederick unholstered the gun on his hip and pointed it at appellant. Appellant, who was afraid of guns after being shot in 2014, jumped over to the passenger seat and grabbed the passenger door. At the same time, appellant heard the first shot hit his dashboard, and he jumped out of the car. The second shot broke the passenger window.
Appellant further claimed that he hurried to a nearby house to ask for help. Susan opened the door but when appellant told her that Frederick was shooting and asked her to call the police, she immediately started screaming and ran past appellant. Appellant entered the house and began looking for a phone. Appellant looked back and saw that Frederick was coming into the house, so he ran upstairs. Frederick was yelling, but appellant could not understand what he was saying. Appellant then came back downstairs and saw no one. He looked out the front door and saw the police, who were telling him to drop the gun and come out with his hands up. Appellant testified that he did not have a gun and held only his cell phone in his hand. Appellant decided that he should take off all his clothes to show the officers that he was not armed and ensure that he did not get shot. Appellant testified that he entered the house because he feared for his life.
On cross-examination, appellant acknowledged that the police found a rolled-up cigarette containing marijuana in his car. He denied that he smoked it while driving or that it was dipped in anything and further claimed that he had not consumed any drugs.
On rebuttal, the Commonwealth called Caroline County Sheriff's Deputy Erin Cardoso. Deputy Cardoso testified that she witnessed appellant exit the Zellers' house naked. She checked on appellant's welfare after the police placed him in a car. When she asked him what had happened, he responded that “it was the drugs.”
The trial court denied appellant's renewed motion to strike. The trial court found Frederick's and Susan's testimony more credible than appellant's testimony. It also found that appellant first walked through an unlocked door and then, after being asked to leave, he returned and broke through the door Susan had locked behind him. Despite appellant's claim that he took the gun only to protect himself, the trial court found the evidence “contrary” to the story. The court noted that appellant did not attempt to disassemble the gun or make it unusable by tossing it away. Ultimately, the trial court convicted appellant of statutory burglary, robbery, felony property damage,...
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