Lee v. Com., 780552

• Citation: 219 Va. 1108,254 S.E.2d 126
• Decision Date: 20 April 1979
• Docket Number: No. 780552,780552
• Parties: Daniel Ogram LEE v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record
• Court: Supreme Court of Virginia

Page 126

254 S.E.2d 126

219 Va. 1108

Daniel Ogram LEE v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 780552.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

April 20, 1979.

James R. Sheeran, West Point, for appellant.

Thomas D. Bagwell, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Marshall Coleman, Atty. Gen., on brief), for appellee.

Before I'ANSON, C. J., and CARRICO, HARRISON, COCHRAN, HARMAN, POFF and COMPTON, JJ.

POFF, Justice.

The principal issue on this appeal is whether the Commonwealth was collaterally estopped, by dismissal of a misdemeanor warrant charging Daniel Ogram Lee with driving after revocation of his operator's license, to prosecute him for the felonies of manslaughter and hit and run driving.

The issue arose on defendant's pre-trial motion to dismiss the felony indictments. Filed with the motion was a "Statement of Proceedings in Lower Court" signed by defendant's counsel and the attorney for the Commonwealth. Upon this stipulation of proceedings in the district court, the trial court overruled defendant's motion, tried him without a jury, convicted him of the two felonies, and, by final judgment entered April 14, 1976, sentenced him to serve five years in the penitentiary on each conviction, the sentences to run concurrently.

The stipulation reads as follows:

On October 21, 1975 trial was had in the matter of Commonwealth vs. Daniel O. Lee. Mr. Lee was present in Court for preliminary hearings on charges of Manslaughter and Hit and Run, as well as trial on a charge of Driving Under Revocation. All these offenses were alleged to have taken place on the 25th day of August, 1975, in New Kent County, Virginia.

Trooper Cobb testified that on August 25, 1975 he investigated an incident wherein the body of Helen Mundie Clayton was discovered lying in the westbound lane of Route 60 in New Kent County. The defense stipulated that the body found was in fact that of Helen Mundie Clayton and that she was dead.

Trooper Cobb further testified that he received information that Daniel O. Lee was a possible suspect in the case. Trooper Cobb stated that he went to Mr. Lee's home in Quinton two days later (August 27, 1975), that he had observed blood on Mr. Lee's vehicle, and that he seized same. The blood on Mr. Lee's car was found to be human blood. Trooper Cobb also stated that a piece of chrome found on Route 60 near the body could have come from Mr. Lee's car. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Lee made the statement that he had hit a deer near the mine he operated in New Kent County.

Mr. Lee's Virginia driving record was introduced into evidence. The record indicated that his privilege to operate a motor vehicle in Virginia had been suspended. The prosecution rested.

Whereupon, the defense moved to strike the evidence as to the Driving Under Revocation on the grounds that the evidence was insufficient to show that the Defendant was driving on the day in question. This Motion was sustained by the trial judge. Probable cause was found as to the charges of Manslaughter and Hit and Run.

Collateral estoppel, a doctrine grounded in the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy and applicable to the states under Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969), means that "when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit." Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 443, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 1194, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970). Invoking that doctrine, defendant contends that the act of driving an automobile on the day in question was an issue of ultimate fact in the misdemeanor prosecution and that dismissal of the...