Whitehead v. Com.

• Decision Date: 04 June 2009
• Docket Number: Record No. 080775.
• Citation: 677 S.E.2d 265,278 Va. 105
• Parties: Charlene Marie WHITEHEAD v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

677 S.E.2d 265

278 Va. 105

Charlene Marie WHITEHEAD v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 080775.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

June 4, 2009.

Patricia P. Nagel, Assistant Appellate Defender II, for appellant.

Jennifer C. Williamson, Assistant Attorney General (William C. Mims, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

Present: All the Justices.

OPINION BY Justice DONALD W. LEMONS.

In this appeal, we consider whether the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the multiple convictions of Charlene Marie Whitehead ("Whitehead") for receiving stolen property and the revocation of Whitehead's prior suspended sentences on unrelated offenses based in part upon the convictions at issue in this appeal.

I. Facts and Proceedings Below

On December 22, 2005, police officers from the City of Danville entered an apartment in Danville with warrants to arrest Whitehead and Jamil A. Walden ("Walden"), the father of Whitehead's child. The officers had also received a tip from an informant indicating that property stolen from numerous motor vehicles was being kept in the apartment. After forcing entry into the apartment, the officers arrested Whitehead and Walden. Upon entry, they observed a variety of computer equipment, cellular telephones, and compact discs in plain view around the apartment, and discovered numerous bags containing miscellaneous other personal property in a closet and in dresser drawers.

Five days after her arrest, Whitehead gave police a signed statement, in which she described the thefts committed by Walden. Whitehead said she knew Walden was breaking into cars, stealing property, and bringing it back to the apartment, and that Walden "was stealing to try and support me and our daughter." The statement also listed some of the stolen items, with comments from Whitehead as to their ownership or origins, and Whitehead's admission that Walden

was helping pay the rent and bills at the house. I knew that Jamil stealing was wrong. I used to fuss and yell at Jamil about stealing and bringing the stuff in the house, but it seemed like the only way we could get by. My only concern is taking care of and being with my daughter, and that's the only reason I allowed this to go on in my house. I was scared that social services would take my child if I could not keep a roof over her head.

While the rental agreement for the apartment listed both Whitehead and Walden as co-tenants, Walden's was the only signature on the agreement. Mack R. Eatmon, Sr., the "maintenance man" for the apartment complex, confirmed that Whitehead resided at the apartment, was present there "mostly everyday" or "off and on everyday," and that on one or two occasions he had collected rent payments for the apartment from Whitehead.

At trial in the Circuit Court for the City of Danville, Whitehead recanted the substance of her statement, claiming she did not know Walden was "breaking into cars," and that all she knew was that Walden "use to come back [to the apartment] with a bunch of stuff. Sometimes he come back with money." However, on cross-examination, Whitehead conceded she knew that the items Walden brought back to the apartment did not belong to him. Walden, who pled guilty to the thefts and testified on Whitehead's behalf, claimed she was not involved in the thefts and that he never gave her any of the stolen items. However, Whitehead did stipulate that these items were all stolen from various owners' vehicles and had been identified by their respective owners when the items were claimed at the police station.

The trial court "merged" Whitehead's 40 indictments into 32 counts of receiving stolen property,¹ and convicted her on each of the 32 counts. At a later sentencing hearing, Whitehead was sentenced under the first six counts to five years' imprisonment with four years suspended on each count, for a total of 30 years' imprisonment with 24 years suspended, and the trial court withheld sentencing on the other 26 counts conditioned on 25 years of good behavior.

On the same day as her sentencing hearing, Whitehead appeared before a different judge of the Danville Circuit Court, who was asked by the Commonwealth to revoke the suspension of Whitehead's prior sentences for previous convictions of receiving stolen property.² Whitehead pled guilty to violating her probation, and the court received evidence of her new convictions and heard evidence of other probation violations, including the failure to maintain contact with her probation officer and the failure to make restitution for her prior offenses. The trial court revoked its prior suspension, and sentenced her to 17 years, 4 months of imprisonment with 12 years, 4 months suspended, for a total of 5 years in addition to her sentences on her new convictions.

The Court of Appeals affirmed both the new convictions and the revocation order in an unpublished opinion. Whitehead v. Commonwealth, Record No. 1699-06-3, 2008 WL 762189 (Mar. 25, 2008). Citing Whitehead's statement to police, her testimony at trial, and the affidavits of the theft victims, the Court of Appeals held that the evidence was sufficient to support the trial court's finding that Whitehead received the stolen property. Id., slip op. at 5. Additionally, the Court of Appeals held that the evidence of the stolen items found in the apartment and Whitehead's admission that she knew the items did not belong to Walden supported the conclusion that "a rational trier of fact could conclude that [Whitehead] either received stolen property from Walden or aided in concealing property he stole." Id. Finally, because Whitehead conceded the propriety of the trial court's revocation assuming her new convictions were affirmed, the Court of Appeals also affirmed the revocation order. Id., slip op. at 6.

We awarded Whitehead an appeal, limited to the following three assignments of error:

1. The Court of Appeals erred in ruling the trial court was not clearly erroneous in finding the evidence sufficient to prove Whitehead received the stolen property.

2. The Court of Appeals erred in ruling the trial court was not clearly erroneous in finding the evidence sufficient to prove Whitehead aided in concealing stolen property.

3. The Court of Appeals erred in ruling the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding reasonable cause to violate.

II. Analysis

A. Receipt of Stolen Property

Whitehead first contends that the evidence introduced by the Commonwealth at trial was insufficient to convict her of receiving stolen property.

When analyzing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court reviews the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party at trial and considers any reasonable inferences from the facts proved. The judgment of the trial court will only be reversed upon a showing that it "is plainly wrong or without evidence to support it."

Wilson v. Commonwealth, 272 Va. 19, 27, 630 S.E.2d 326, 330 (2006) (quoting Code § 8.01-680) (citation omitted).

Whitehead was found guilty of 32 counts of violating Code § 18.2-108, which at the time of Whitehead's convictions³ stated: "If any person buy or receive from another person ... any stolen goods or other thing, knowing the same to have been stolen, he shall be deemed guilty of larceny thereof, and may be proceeded against, although the principal offender be not convicted." Code § 18.2-108 (2004). This Court has previously established that to prove this offense by showing receipt, the Commonwealth must demonstrate that the property was "previously stolen by some person other than the accused; that the accused received the [property] from such other person; that at the time he received [the property] he knew [it] had been stolen; and that he received [it] with dishonest intent." Reaves v. Commonwealth, 192 Va. 443, 449, 65 S.E.2d 559, 563 (1951). Whitehead does not challenge the Commonwealth's proof that the property was stolen, but assigns error to the trial court's holding that the evidence was sufficient to prove she received the stolen property or aided in its concealment.

The Commonwealth has never contended that Whitehead was involved in the actual theft of items from the various vehicles, or that she physically received the stolen items from Walden. Instead, the Commonwealth premised its argument as to receipt upon a concept of "constructive receipt," because Whitehead received benefits flowing from the sale of the stolen goods. In her statement to police, Whitehead conceded that Walden was "stealing to try to support me and our daughter," and that Walden "was helping pay the rent and bills at the house" with money he obtained by selling the property he had stolen. Based on this evidence, the Commonwealth argued,

this is a case in reference not to her actually stealing the items but receiving those items as Mr. Walden was bringing them back to the apartment and then not only allowing it to go on, but I guess getting fruit in reference to that, having her bills paid as toward whatever items was stolen and they could get any money for it.

On appeal, the Court of Appeals accepted this proposition, noting that Whitehead admitted that "the proceeds of the thefts were used to support her and the couple's child." Whitehead, Record No. 1699-06-3, slip op. at 5. Based on this admission, the Court of Appeals concluded that "[t]he trial court had sufficient information to find [Whitehead] knew that the items she received from Walden were stolen." Id. (emphasis added).

On appeal before this Court, the Commonwealth maintains that Whitehead's acceptance of the proceeds of the thefts committed by Walden constituted receipt for the purposes of Code § 18.2-108. In support of this theory of constructive receipt, the Commonwealth cites People ex rel. Briggs v. Hanley, 226 N.Y. 453, 123 N.E. 663, 664 (1919), in which the Court of Appeals of New York sustained a conviction for receiving stolen property when the defendant accepted loan proceeds she knew her...