Hanson v. Com., Record No. 1311-97-4.

• Citation: 509 S.E.2d 543,29 Va. App. 69
• Decision Date: 26 January 1999
• Docket Number: Record No. 1311-97-4.
• Parties: Lars James HANSON v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Virginia

509 S.E.2d 543

29 Va. App. 69

Lars James HANSON v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 1311-97-4.

Court of Appeals of Virginia, Alexandria.

January 26, 1999.

Peter D. Greenspun, Fairfax (Cynthia A. Bailey; Peter D. Greenspun & Associates, P.C., Fairfax, on briefs), for appellant.

Ruth Morken McKeaney, Assistant Attorney General (Mark L. Earley, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

Present: FITZPATRICK, C.J., WILLIS and ANNUNZIATA, JJ.

ANNUNZIATA, Judge.

Lars James Hanson ("appellant") was convicted by jury trial in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County of first degree murder. Appellant contends the trial court erred: (1) by failing to grant a mistrial after the Commonwealth asked him questions on cross-examination about statements he made regarding an unrelated offense without previously having disclosed those statements pursuant to a discovery order entered under Rule 3A:11; (2) by failing to grant a mistrial or to strike the Commonwealth's questions about his statements based on their irrelevance to any issue presented at trial; and (3) by failing to advise the jury during its sentencing deliberations that he would be ineligible for parole. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On the evening of March 25, 1996, appellant and his girlfriend, Virginia Price, drove into a Shell station to purchase gasoline. As appellant pumped gas, William Henry Gaumer and David Stallard drove up in Gaumer's van to a nearby pump. According to appellant, Stallard made several unwelcome comments to Price as he walked by her on his way to and from the station. Ignoring Stallard's comments, appellant finished pumping gas and walked to the cashier booth to pay. As appellant returned and got in his vehicle to leave, he saw Stallard make a sexual gesture toward Price. In response, appellant took a large hunting knife out of his vehicle, went over to Stallard, and fatally stabbed Stallard as he sat in the front passenger seat of Gaumer's van with the window down.

Before trial, appellant gave notice on August 27, 1996 of "his intent to present evidence on the issue of his sanity at the time of the crime charged." On January 23, 1997, pursuant to Rule 3A:11, the court entered a discovery and inspection order. The order required the Commonwealth to permit appellant:

to inspect, copy and/or photograph (1) all written or recorded statements or confessions made by the accused, or copies thereof, or the substance of any oral statements or confessions made by the accused to any law enforcement officer, the existence of which is known to the Attorney for the Commonwealth....

At trial, appellant's counsel presented evidence to establish that appellant suffers from a mental condition known as Intermittent Explosive Disorder and that he acted under the irresistible impulse of this condition when he stabbed Stallard to death. To this end, appellant testified broadly on direct examination about his past, including information regarding his upbringing, prior convictions, and experiences within the penal system. One such experience occurred in 1990 in Ocean City, Maryland, and resulted in appellant's conviction for attempted murder. Appellant testified with respect to that incident, stating he became involved in an altercation with three men after coming to the aid of a friend. Realizing that he was outnumbered and surrounded by these men, appellant pulled out a gun "hoping that they would stop" advancing on him. Appellant further testified:

Q. Did they [stop]?

A. They didn't stop. Then the next thing you know, the trigger was pulled.

Q. You pulled it?

A. I pulled the trigger. The guy who was right in front of me he was the one who was shot, and we were just standing there looking at each other and then I kept hearing my name, "Lars, Lars, Lars," which was I think either Rick or Isaac who was with me, and then I just—T snapped out of it, and just they said, "Come on. Come on," and we were leaving.

On cross-examination, the Commonwealth asked appellant whether he felt sorry for shooting the man in Maryland. Appellant replied, "Yes." Appellant subsequently objected to this inquiry on the ground of relevance; his objection was overruled. The Commonwealth then questioned appellant regarding statements he made to Maryland police officers after the shooting. Specifically, the Commonwealth asked whether appellant recalled saying he "did not feel bad about shooting [his] victim," that he "wished the exit wound could be even bigger," and that he wished he had his nine millimeter so his target "would have dropped to the ground." Appellant denied making all such statements.

Notwithstanding the trial court's discovery and inspection order, the Commonwealth had not disclosed these statements before appellant's trial. Appellant immediately objected to the statements' relevance. Following appellant's testimony, appellant also moved for a mistrial, arguing the statements were irrelevant and the Commonwealth should have disclosed them pursuant to the court's discovery order. The court overruled appellant's objection and denied his motion for a mistrial, stating that the discovery order's scope was limited to the offense presently on trial.

The jury found appellant guilty of first degree murder and subsequently, during sentencing deliberations, sent a note to the court asking the following question: "what is the minimum amount of time someone would have to serve if he was sentenced to 20 years, 30 years, [and] 40 years?" In response, the court advised the jury that it "need not concern itself with the answer to this question." Outside the presence of the jurors, appellant's counsel noted that the question was "directed toward the issue of parole" and argued that it should be answered. The court disagreed, noting appellant's objection.

II. STATEMENTS SUBJECT TO THE DISCOVERY ORDER

Appellant first argues the trial court committed reversible error by failing to grant a mistrial based on the Commonwealth's crossexamination reference to his statements to Maryland authorities, which had not been disclosed pursuant to the court's pretrial discovery order. We disagree.

Rule 3A:11(b)(1) requires a circuit court trying a felony case, upon written motion, to order the Commonwealth to permit the defendant access to:

any relevant (i) written or recorded statements or confessions made by the accused..., or the substance of any oral statements or confessions made by the accused to any law enforcement officer, the existence of which is known to the attorney for the Commonwealth ....

As the text of the rule indicates, the Commonwealth's obligation to disclose both recorded and oral statements is subject to a relevancy condition. Accordingly, we first decide whether appellant's oral statements to Maryland authorities regarding his involvement in a shooting approximately seven years before the discovery order at issue were "relevant" to the instant prosecution for murder, as the term is used in Rule 3A:11(b)(1).

There are no cases in Virginia directly addressing the issue of whether statements made to police during the investigation of an unrelated incident are "relevant" within the meaning of Rule 3A:11(b)(1). However, when construing the meaning of "relevant" under this rule, we take cognizance of our appellate court decisions which hold that there is no constitutional right to discovery in a criminal case and that the accused's statutory right to discovery is a limited one. Hackman v. Commonwealth, 220 Va. 710, 713, 261 S.E.2d 555, 558 (1980); Bellfield v. Commonwealth, 215 Va. 303, 306, 208 S.E.2d 771, 773-74 (1974); Guba v. Commonwealth, 9 Va.App. 114, 118, 383 S.E.2d 764, 767 (1989). In addition, familiar rules of statutory construction are instructive and provide guidance in the interpretation of courtadopted rules. Green v. Lewis Truck Lines, Inc., 314 S.C. 303, 443 S.E.2d 906, 907 (S.C. 1994); Vaughn v. Chung, 119 Wash.2d 273, 830 P.2d 668, 672 (Wash.1992). When interpreting a statute, we examine its provisions in their entirety, rather than by isolating particular words or phrases. Ragan v. Woodcraft, 255 Va. 322, 325, 497 S.E.2d 740, 742 (1998); Buonocore v. C & P Tel. Co., 254 Va. 469, 472-73, 492 S.E.2d 439, 441 (1997). When a statute's words are not sufficiently explicit, we may determine the intent of the legislature from a comparison of the statute's several parts in pari materia. Virginia Soc'y for Human Life, Inc. v. Caldwell, 256 Va. 151, 156, 500 S.E.2d 814, 816 (1998). In pari materia is the rule of statutory construction that statutes or sections of' the same statute relating to the same subject "`should be read, construed and applied together so that the legislature's intention can be gathered from the whole of the enactments.'" Alger v. Commonwealth, 19 Va. App. 252, 256, 450 S.E.2d 765, 767 (1994) (quoting Black's Law Dictionary 791 (6th ed. 1990)). See Board of Zoning Appeals of Norfolk v. Kahhal, 255 Va. 476, 480-81, 499 S.E.2d 519, 522 (1998) (finding that the trial court's reference to various sections of a zoning ordinance in pari materia in order to determine another section's purpose and intent did not constitute error). This rule "applies with peculiar force in the construction of a Code to the several parts thereof which relate to the same subject-matter, were conceived by the same minds, prepared by the same hands, and adopted at the same time by the same legislative body." South & W. Ry. Co. v. Commonwealth, 104 Va. 314, 321, 51 S.E. 824, 826 (1905).

Viewing Rule 3A:11 as a whole, the limitations dictated in related and contemporaneously enacted subparagraphs of the Rule support the conclusion that the term "relevant" as used in subparagraph (b)(1) does not generally encompass statements unrelated to the particular offense under prosecution. Rule 3A:11(b)(1)(ii) provides that an accused's discovery of "relevant" autopsy reports, various tests, and physical and mental examination reports is limited to...