Com. v. Presley, Record No. 980325.
| Decision Date | 06 November 1998 |
| Docket Number | Record No. 980325. |
| Citation | 256 Va. 465,507 S.E.2d 72 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Virginia v. William Alan PRESLEY. |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Kathleen B. Martin, Assistant Attorney General (Mark L. Earley, Attorney General, on brief), for appellant.
Charles A. Anderson, Reston, for appellee.
Present: All the Justices.
In this appeal, we consider whether the evidence was sufficient to support the defendant's conviction for voluntary manslaughter.
Tried in Loudoun County by a jury and convicted of voluntary manslaughter, William Alan Presley was sentenced to one year and six months imprisonment. Presley appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeals. He asserted that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction because the Commonwealth purportedly failed to prove that he killed the victim, Sandra D. Laing. The Court of Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, agreed with the defendant, reversed the judgment of the trial court, and set aside the conviction. Presley v. Commonwealth, Record No. 2265-96-4 (January 20, 1998). We awarded the Commonwealth an appeal.
We have enunciated the following principles of appellate review which are pertinent here. When a defendant challenges on appeal the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction, it is the duty of an appellate court to examine the evidence that tends to support the conviction and to permit the conviction to stand unless the conviction is plainly wrong or without evidentiary support. Commonwealth v. Jenkins, 255 Va. 516, 520, 499 S.E.2d 263, 265 (1998); Tyler v. Commonwealth, 254 Va. 162, 165-66, 487 S.E.2d 221, 223 (1997). If there is evidence to support the conviction, an appellate court is not permitted to substitute its own judgment for that of the finder of fact, even if the appellate court might have reached a different conclusion. Jenkins, 255 Va. at 520, 499 S.E.2d at 265; Tyler, 254 Va. at 165-66, 487 S.E.2d at 223; Cable v. Commonwealth, 243 Va. 236, 239, 415 S.E.2d 218, 220 (1992).
Additionally, upon appellate review, the evidence and all inferences reasonably deducible therefrom must be examined in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the prevailing party in the trial court. Any evidence properly admitted at trial is subject to this review. Jenkins, 255 Va. at 521, 499 S.E.2d at 265.
The following facts are relevant to our disposition of this appeal. Presley, Laing, and William P. Rossbach resided together in a house in Loudoun County. Each of the occupants used a separate bedroom. Presley and Laing were described as "boyfriend" and "girlfriend," and they had a sexual relationship.
On July 31, 1995, about 4:30 p.m., Rossbach drove Laing in his car to visit a physician. Laing had complained of having "the flu or something" and feeling "really sick." Laing and Rossbach returned from the doctor's office between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m.
Earlier that day, before Rossbach took Laing to the doctor's office, she stumbled and hit her head on a doorknob. In response to Rossbach's question "[a]re you all right up there?", Laing said,
About midnight on July 31, 1995, Sandra Everhart arrived at the house. She went to Rossbach's bedroom, removed her clothing, and attempted to have sexual intercourse with him. Rossbach, who had "too much to drink," was unable to have sexual relations with Everhart. Presley entered Rossbach's room and told Everhart, in Rossbach's presence, that Presley wanted to have sexual intercourse with her. Presley and Rossbach began to argue, and Laing, who had heard the conversation, appeared at the door to the room.
Laing was upset, and she told Presley to leave the room. She also directed Everhart to leave. Rossbach, in an effort to humiliate Presley, told Laing that he had not forgotten about a sexual affair that Laing had with a man named Tom. Presley had not known about this relationship. Laing denied the relationship, but Presley became enraged.
Sometime between midnight and 1:00 a.m., after Everhart left the house, Rossbach heard "banging and stuff going on." Presley and Laing were in her bedroom arguing about the affair she purportedly had with Tom. Rossbach entered the bedroom, told Presley and Laing to "[c]ut it out," and went downstairs to the kitchen. While he was in the kitchen, Rossbach heard "a bunch of yelling," and he heard Laing say, "[p]lease don't hit me."
While Rossbach was walking up the stairs to return to his room, he heard Presley call Laing a "fucking bitch." Rossbach went to Laing's bedroom. She was on the floor naked, and Presley had "his hand around her throat." Rossbach said, "[w]hat the hell?" Presley, who was choking her, stopped. Presley "was pretty much just kind of yelling in grief, and [he] let [Laing] go as soon as [Rossbach] said `what the hell is going on?'" Presley stated, After Rossbach saw Presley with his hand around Laing's neck, she did not move. Later, when Rossbach entered Laing's room, he observed that she was clothed, lying on her bed, snoring.
Alvin D. Blankenship, a Virginia State Trooper, spoke with Presley by telephone sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m. on August 1, 1995. Presley told Blankenship that Presley wanted the State Police to remove Laing from his house because she "was a whore" and was "using drugs." Presley also stated that "sometimes he [got] so mad that he just [felt] like knocking [Laing] in the head." Blankenship warned Presley that if he committed any acts of violence, he would be arrested. Presley responded that the Loudoun County Police always arrested him when the police officers went to his home.
About 1:46 a.m. on August 1, 1995, Sergeant Eric Noble, a deputy sheriff with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Department, responded to a call from the defendant's home regarding an unconscious female. Sergeant Noble arrived at the house, Presley met him at the front door, and permitted him to enter. When Sergeant Noble entered Laing's bedroom, she was lying on the floor, her breathing was extremely "ragged and labored, and [she] appeared to be in [a] very serious condition."
After Sergeant Noble used his radio to request medical help, he asked Presley what had happened. Presley stated that "he beat the hell out of her on the floor, that he had hit her with the chair." Sergeant Noble saw pieces of a broken chair above the victim's head. He also observed a...
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