COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present: Judges Benton, Annunziata and Overton
Argued at Norfolk, Virginia
JERMAINE L. BELL
MEMORANDUM OPINION * BY
v. Record No. 2967-97-1 JUDGE NELSON T. OVERTON
JANUARY 26, 1999
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF NORFOLK
Junius P. Fulton, III, Judge
James O. Broccoletti (Zoby & Broccoletti,
P.C., on brief), for appellant.
Robert H. Anderson, III, Assistant Attorney
General (Mark L. Earley, Attorney General, on
brief), for appellee.
Jermaine L. Bell (defendant) appeals his convictions for
first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a
felony. He contends that the evidence was insufficient to
support his convictions because the killer, with whom defendant
acted in concert to perpetrate the crime, did not have the
specific intent to commit murder. Because we hold that the
evidence was sufficient to show the requisite intent, we affirm.
When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged on
appeal, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the
Commonwealth and grant to it all reasonable inferences fairly
deducible therefrom. See Higginbotham v. Commonwealth, 216 Va.
349, 352, 218 S.E.2d 534, 537 (1975). We may not disturb the
*
Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, recodifying Code § 17-116.010,
this opinion is not designated for publication.
convictions unless they are plainly wrong or unsupported by the
evidence. See Traverso v. Commonwealth, 6 Va. App. 172, 176, 366
S.E.2d 719, 721 (1988). So viewed, the evidence established that
on the morning of April 1, 1996, Cecil Manley was moving some
property belonging to Nakeesha Locker out of her apartment on 320
South Main Street in Norfolk, Virginia. Locker's apartment was
near the corner of South Main and Hough Street. An alley ran
behind the houses facing Hough Street and separated them from
houses facing Bellamy Street, which runs parallel to Hough Street
and perpendicular to South Main Street.
As Manley drove to Locker's apartment that morning, he
noticed defendant driving by in defendant's vehicle. After
Manley had reached the apartment and began to move boxes into a
van, Manley saw defendant drive down South Main Street and turn
onto Bellamy Street. Manley noted that defendant had two
passengers in his car. The passengers were Ronald Cooke and
Darrell Smith, and all three men were armed with a variety of
weapons including a shotgun, an automatic rifle and a handgun.
At about noon, Manley saw defendant, Cooke and Smith in the
alley behind the apartment building in which he was working.
When Manley spotted them, the three men walked up the alley and
began firing their weapons at Manley. Manley dropped the box he
was carrying and ran around the apartment building in the
direction of Hough Street. He found an abandoned house on Hough
Street and crawled under it. Manley could hear gunfire for
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several more minutes, then he heard a woman screaming "my baby."
When he heard sirens he emerged from the building and talked to
the police.
After Manley had fled, defendant and Cooke returned to
defendant's car and picked up Smith. They all drove down Bellamy
Street, towards South Main Street, at least once, and possibly
several times. During one pass, the front seat passenger leaned
out of his window with an automatic weapon. He aimed across the
roof of the car and fired a series of shots at a 45-degree angle
to the car in the direction of Hough Street and the back of
Locker's apartment. The man hanging out the window had long,
dreadlocked hair, which fit the description of Ronald Cooke.
Taylor Ricks lived at 120 Hough Street, about a block from
Locker's apartment. She was in an upper bedroom of her home
during the shooting. After the shooting stopped, Taylor's mother
and cousin found Taylor face down on her bed, bleeding. A
medical examiner testified that one bullet entered Taylor's
wrist, exited the back of her hand, re-entered her body through
her cheek and exited the back of her neck. The examiner opined
that, due to the size and probable velocity of the bullet, it was
fired from a rifle. Taylor was taken by paramedics to a local
hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival.
Defendant admits he acted in concert with Cooke and Smith in
an attempt to kill Cecil Manley and, thus, "may be held
accountable for incidental crimes committed by another
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participant during the enterprise even though not originally or
specifically designed." Berkeley v. Commonwealth, 19 Va. App.
279, 283, 451 S.E.2d 41, 43 (1994). He also concedes that if
Ronald Cooke, the person who fired the fatal shot, had the
specific intent to kill Manley, then the transferred intent
doctrine would result in defendant's culpability for first-degree
murder and use of a firearm in the commission of that murder.
See Henderson v. Commonwealth, 17 Va. App. 444, 449-50, 438
S.E.2d 292, 295 (1993) (citing Riddick v. Commonwealth, 226 Va.
244, 248, 308 S.E.2d 117, 119 (1983)). The narrow question
before us is whether the evidence was sufficient to support the
trial court's conclusion that Cooke maintained the specific
intent to kill Manley when he shot Taylor Ricks.
"'Intent is the purpose formed in a person's mind and may
be, and frequently is, shown by circumstances. It is a state of
mind which may be proved by a person's conduct or by his
statements.'" Haywood v. Commonwealth, 20 Va. App. 562, 565, 458
S.E.2d 606, 608 (1995) (quoting Barrett v. Commonwealth, 210 Va.
153, 156, 169 S.E.2d 449, 451 (1969)). "[W]hether the required
intent exists is generally a question for the trier of fact."
Nobles v. Commonwealth, 218 Va. 548, 551, 238 S.E.2d 808, 810
(1977).
We hold the trial court's finding, that Cooke's conduct
evinced an intent to murder Manley when he shot Taylor Ricks, is
supported by the record. The attack upon Manley had subsided not
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minutes before defendant and his friends entered his car to
resume the search for Manley. They drove around the block
shooting at areas where Manley could have been hiding. The shot
which killed Taylor was fired in the direction they had last seen
Manley, near the area of their initial assault. These actions
exhibited not mindless violence, but a systematic attempt to find
and kill Manley. The facts support the trial judge's conclusion
that "[e]very bullet that was fired out there was meant for Cecil
Manley."
We hold that the evidence was sufficient to support
defendant's convictions for first-degree murder and use of a
firearm in the commission of a felony. Accordingly, the
convictions are affirmed.
Affirmed.
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