Roach v. Com.
| Decision Date | 01 March 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 951416,951416 |
| Citation | 468 S.E.2d 98,251 Va. 324 |
| Parties | Steve ROACH v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
From the Circuit Court of Greene County; Lloyd C. Sullenberger, Judge.
David L. Heilberg (Peter L. McCloud; Boyle, Bain & Downer, on briefs), Charlottesville, for appellant.
Robert B. Beasley, Jr., Assistant Attorney General (James S. Gilmore, III, Attorney General, on brief), Richmond, for appellee.
Present: All the Justices.
In this appeal, we review a capital murder conviction and a death sentence imposed upon Steve Edward Roach for the murder of Mary Ann Hughes, his 70-year-old neighbor. 1
Juvenile petitions were issued against Roach, who was 17 years old at the time of these offenses, charging him with capital murder, use of a firearm in the commission of murder, and robbery. The Commonwealth gave notice of intent to try Roach as an adult and a transfer hearing was conducted in the Greene County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (the juvenile court). Finding probable cause to believe that Roach committed the crimes, the juvenile court advised the Commonwealth's Attorney that he could seek indictments against Roach before a grand jury. The circuit court then reviewed the transfer order under Code § 16.1-269 and found probable cause to believe that Roach committed all three offenses.
Roach was tried as an adult on indictments charging (1) capital murder of Mary Ann Hughes in the commission of robbery while armed with a deadly weapon, in violation of Code § 18.2-31(4); (2) use of a firearm in the commission of murder, in violation of Code § 18.2-53.1; and (3) robbery by violence to the person of Mary Ann Hughes, in violation of Code § 18.2-58. At the first stage of a bifurcated jury trial conducted pursuant to Code §§ 19.2-264.3 and -264.4(A), Roach was found guilty as charged in all three indictments. 2
At the penalty phase of the capital murder trial, the court struck the evidence as to the "vileness" predicate of a capital sentence, but submitted the case to the jury upon the "future dangerousness" predicate. The jury found that the "future dangerousness" predicate was satisfied and unanimously fixed Roach's punishment at death.
Upon review of victim impact statements and a probation officer's report, and after conducting a sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced Roach in accord with the jury verdict on the capital murder conviction. Further, the court sentenced Roach to three years imprisonment for the use of a firearm in the commission of a murder and to life imprisonment for robbery.
We will review the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the prevailing party below. Cheng v. Commonwealth, 240 Va. 26, 42, 393 S.E.2d 599, 608 (1990). On the evening of December 3, 1993, Mary Ann Hughes was shot and killed in her home about five miles west of Stanardsville. Hughes was standing at her open front door when she was shot. Her body was discovered the next day.
The cause of death was a single shotgun wound to the chest, which caused injury to an artery, the chest wall, and the right lung. Dr. Deborah Kay, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Hughes, recovered shotgun pellets and wadding from Hughes's chest. The pellets and wadding were identified as number eight shot from a 12 gauge Remington shot shell case.
The day before the killing, Roach brought a 12 gauge shotgun to a neighbor's house, and he and two friends engaged in shooting the gun in the back yard using number eight shot. The police later recovered from the neighbor's back yard number eight shot that was consistent with a 12 gauge Remington shell case.
Roach and Hughes were also neighbors. Roach helped Hughes with household chores and also spent a great deal of time visiting her. The evidence showed that Roach was familiar with Hughes's habits, and that Hughes customarily deposited her social security check in the bank within the first few days of each month.
On the night she was killed, Hughes's purse, containing a Discover credit card and approximately sixty dollars in cash, was taken from her home. Hughes owned a 1981 Buick Regal, which also was taken.
In the early morning hours of December 4, 1993, Gregory Lee Giuriceo, Jr., a deputy sheriff for Nottoway County, noticed a Buick Regal parked in a parking lot of a shopping center in Blackstone. Roach was identified by Giuriceo as the operator of the car. After leaving the parking lot, Giuriceo determined that the automobile was registered to Hughes.
Later in the morning of December 4, 1993, Roach attempted to use Hughes's Discover bank card at an automated teller machine in Louisburg, North Carolina. A video tape from the machine showed Roach attempting to withdraw cash from Hughes's account.
On December 5, 1993, Trooper David F. Chavis of the South Carolina Highway Patrol observed a 1981 Buick Regal automobile with Virginia plates which was being driven at 69 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone. He activated the lights on his patrol car and proceeded behind the Buick. The driver of the Buick drove the automobile over to the left shoulder of the road, got out of the car, ran into the woods at the side of the road, and escaped. The driver was wearing clothes which matched the description of the clothes Roach had been seen wearing for the previous two days.
Trooper Chavis impounded the vehicle and traced its ownership to Hughes. Items retrieved from the automobile included Hughes's purse, a blue jacket, a number eight load shotgun shell, and a plastic bag from a Winn-Dixie grocery store. Mahlon Jones, a fingerprint expert employed by the Commonwealth's Division of Forensic Science, identified a latent palm print from the plastic bag as matching Roach's left palm print. In addition, latent fingerprints were recovered from the automobile which matched Roach's fingerprints.
Roach made several telephone calls to his aunt, Annie Betty Dean, while he was in North Carolina and South Carolina. During those telephone conversations, she asked him to "come home and give [himself] up." On December 6, 1993, Roach contacted Sheriff William L. Morris and arranged to come that day with his father to the Sheriff's Department for questioning.
At the Sheriff's Department, Morris advised Roach of his Miranda rights in the presence of Roach's father. Roach waived his rights, and both he and his father signed the waiver form. Sheriff Morris then questioned Roach out of his father's presence. Clarence Roberts, an acquaintance of the Roach family and an employee of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, was present with Morris during the interview.
At first, Roach told Morris that he and a friend, Scott Shifflett, went to Hughes's house on the evening of December 3, 1993. Roach said that Shifflett left the 12 gauge shotgun at the door, and that they entered the house and played Yahtzee with Hughes. Roach recounted that Shifflett then took the keys to the Buick Regal and the two began to leave the house. Roach said that, after he left, Shifflett ran back to the front door, fired one shot, and ran back to the Buick with Hughes's purse. According to Roach, Shifflett said that he had "fired through the roof to scare her."
Roach stated that Shifflett then jumped into the driver's seat of the Buick and they drove to North Carolina. He said that Shifflett must have tried to use Hughes's Discover credit card while Roach was in a Winn-Dixie store making some purchases. Roach also stated that he and Shifflett abandoned Hughes's vehicle in North Carolina.
During the questioning, Morris related to Roach certain evidence that had already been discovered, stating, "[W]ith all these discrepancies in the story, ... I'm finding it really a little difficult to believe some of the things you're telling me." Roberts then told Roach that he knew Roach was lying and that "this is a heavy burden to carry on your shoulders for the rest of your life, if you committed this act you need to tell Sheriff Morris and you need to unburden yourself."
Roach then told Morris,
I went over there and saw her counting the money and as I was leaving, I had the shotgun laying at the door and I shot her, took the money, the car and left, went to North Carolina. And I cashed--I tried to use--use the credit card but--about four times[,] but it wouldn't work.
When asked where he shot Hughes, he answered, "In the chest."
At trial, Roach offered evidence that there was no gunshot residue on his hands or clothes when he was arrested. He also presented evidence that no footprints at the scene of the crime matched the shoes he was wearing on December 3, 1993. In addition, Barbara Llewellyn, an expert employed by the Division of Forensic Science in the analysis of blood and body fluid, testified that, when Roach was arrested, he had no blood on his clothing, except a "very light stain" on his shirt, despite the fact that the fatal wound perforated one of Hughes's arteries and the pattern of blood splatters indicated that the person who had fired the gun was standing within five feet of Hughes.
During the penalty phase of the trial, the Commonwealth put on evidence of Roach's prior juvenile convictions. Roach had been convicted twice of grand larceny of an automobile. He committed the first larceny in May 1993 and the second in August 1993. In connection with the first automobile larceny, Roach was convicted of reckless driving and failure to stop for a police officer.
In June 1993, Roach was convicted of breaking and entering a residential dwelling and of grand larceny arising out of the burglary. Roach gained entry to the home by breaking a window. He then ransacked the house and stole a .357 magnum pistol.
In August 1993, Roach was sentenced to supervised probation and house arrest under the supervision of his parents at all times. He violated the...
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