Stover v. Com., 801748
| Decision Date | 16 October 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 801748,801748 |
| Citation | 222 Va. 618,283 S.E.2d 194 |
| Parties | David STOVER, Jr. v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Michael Morchower, Richmond (C. David Whaley, Morchower & Associates, Richmond, on brief), for appellant.
Patricia L. Maslinoff, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Marshall Coleman, Atty. Gen., on brief), for appellee.
Before CARRICO, C. J., and HARRISON, COCHRAN, POFF, COMPTON, THOMPSON and STEPHENSON, JJ.
Convicted by a jury of second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of murder, the defendant, David Stover, Jr., was sentenced to a total of eight years' imprisonment. On appeal, the sole question for decision is whether the convictions are supported by sufficient evidence.
The record shows that on the evening of March 7, 1980, a "social" was held at the home of Clarence Heiskill in an apartment complex in the City of Richmond. During the course of the evening, the defendant and several other guests engaged in "shooting a little dice." One of the players, Dean Taylor, "won the money," accumulating $200-300 in winnings. The defendant lost approximately $100, but he did not appear upset over his loss.
The game ended shortly after midnight. The defendant and Taylor departed, but the record does not show whether they exited together or, if separately, in what order. In any event, soon after Taylor left, two gunshots sounded outside, and a car without lights was observed speeding away from the scene.
Taylor's body, bearing two gunshot wounds, was found on the ground in front of one of the apartment buildings. Taylor's pockets contained "some change," but no currency.
The car observed leaving the scene was described by one Commonwealth witness as "a red Grand Prix with a white top" and by another as a "dark colored car with a light colored top." These witnesses were unable to state either the number or the identity of the car's occupants.
In the course of interviewing those present at the party, D. L. Houchins, a Richmond detective, questioned the defendant the day after the shooting. The defendant told Houchins he owned a 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix, maroon in color "with a half light-brown vinyl top," which he had driven to the party on the evening in question. 1 The defendant said he had arrived at the party sometime after 10:30 p.m. and had left at 1:00 a.m. He stated he observed no gambling while at the party.
During the interview, the defendant wore gloves, and Houchins asked him to remove them. The defendant first demurred and then complied, revealing a bandage on the index finger of his left hand. When the bandage was removed, Houchins observed a "raw burn or wound" on the finger. The defendant explained that he had burned himself with a soldering iron while "working on something" the day before, but he could not remember "what he was working on."
Houchins told the defendant that the wound "looked like the results of a muzzle blast from a pistol being fired" and that he intended to test the defendant's hands for the recent firing of a weapon. 2 The defendant then said he had worked on "some dude's gun" the previous evening with a hot soldering iron. The defendant avowed that the "iron slipped and burned [his] finger and [he] accidentally squeezed the trigger of the gun and it almost blowed [his] finger off." The defendant stated he met "the dude," whose name he did not know but whose description he gave in detail, "way out in the boondocks" in Chesterfield County at a place he "could never find" again. The defendant informed Houchins further that, after leaving "the dude," he visited his girlfriend, who bandaged his finger before he went to the party at the Heiskill residence.
Two Commonwealth witnesses who were present at the party testified they observed nothing unusual about the defendant's physical appearance while he was engaged in the dice game. One of these witnesses was asked specifically whether he noticed anything unusual about the defendant's hands, and he replied negatively.
Testifying in his own behalf, the defendant denied killing Taylor. He said he told Detective Houchins no gambling took place at the party because he did not want to get his host in trouble. He stated he left the party at midnight, and he denied telling Houchins he departed at 1:00 a.m.
The defendant repeated, with some embellishment, his story about his excursion into the "boondocks" to repair "some dude's gun." This time, however, he produced "the dude" as a witness in the person of one Robert Johnson, whose actual description differed from the physical details the defendant had given Houchins in their interview. Johnson testified his gun was broken and the defendant was trying to repair it with a battery-powered soldering iron when the iron burned the defendant's hand and the gun accidentally discharged. Johnson said he threw the gun away and the defendant did the same with the soldering iron.
The defendant argues that the evidence against him is purely circumstantial and insufficient to support his convictions. The defendant says the burden is upon the Commonwealth to prove that the circumstances of motive, time, place, means, and conduct concur in identifying him as the criminal agent. Under the evidence produced below, the defendant maintains, it "is just as likely that someone else at the social or a total stranger murdered the victim." The Commonwealth failed in its burden of proof, the defendant concludes, and he is entitled to reversal of his convictions.
The Attorney General agrees that the burden is upon the Commonwealth to prove that motive, time, place, means, and conduct concur in pointing out the defendant as the perpetrator of Taylor's murder. The Attorney General insists, however, that the Commonwealth has borne its burden.
The defendant was the "big loser" to Taylor in the dice game, the Attorney General asserts, and the defendant's motive for murdering Taylor, therefore, was robbery and the concealment of robbery. The Attorney General maintains the evidence established that the defendant left the party about the same time as Taylor and the description of the speeding car "matched the description of the defendant's car"; thus, the defendant was placed at the scene of the crime "at the precise moment" of the shooting. The Attorney General argues further the jury...
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...Proof of suspicious circumstances, "no matter how strong, is insufficient to sustain a criminal conviction." Stover v. Commonwealth, 222 Va. 618, 624, 283 S.E.2d 194, 197 (1981) (citing Thomas v. Commonwealth, 187 Va. 265, 271-72, 46 S.E.2d 388, 391 I agree that Wilson was found in suspicio......
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Molina v. Com.
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Thomas v. Commonwealth, Record No. 2765-04-2 (VA 2/28/2006), Record No. 2765-04-2.
...528, 533 (1951). "Suspicion, . . . no matter how strong, is insufficient to sustain a criminal conviction." Stover v. Commonwealth, 222 Va. 618, 624, 283 S.E.2d 194, 197 (1981). Because the circumstances here are merely suspicious and do not exclude the reasonable hypothesis that Thomas was......
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Pease v. Commonwealth
...consistent with guilt and inconsistent with innocence and exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence.'" Stover v. Commonwealth, 222 Va. 618, 623, 283 S.E.2d 194, 196 (1981) (quoting Inge v. Commonwealth, 217 Va. 360, 366, 228 S.E.2d 563, 567 (1976)). "When, from the circumstantial evi......