COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present: Judges Beales, Chafin and Senior Judge Bumgardner
UNPUBLISHED
Argued at Chesapeake, Virginia
CHELSEA NICOLE COSTON
MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY
v. Record No. 1880-15-1 JUDGE RUDOLPH BUMGARDNER, III
NOVEMBER 29, 2016
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH
James Clayton Lewis, Judge
Annette Miller, Senior Trial Attorney (Office of the Public Defender,
on brief), for appellant.
Eugene Murphy, Senior Assistant Attorney General (Mark R.
Herring, Attorney General; Susan Baumgartner, Assistant Attorney
General, on brief), for appellee.
Chelsea Nicole Coston appeals her conviction of petit larceny, third offense, Code
§ 18.2-104. She admits she committed the current larceny but maintains a prior conviction could
only enhance her punishment if it was pronounced before the current offense occurred. We
conclude that the predicate offense must occur before the date of the present offense, but the
conviction for the predicate offense need not predate the current offense. Accordingly, we affirm
her conviction.
When the defendant stole from WalMart on June 20, 2014, she had been convicted for
uttering a bad check in 2013. Two days prior she also had committed a petit larceny, but she was
not convicted of the offense until July 21, 2014.
*
Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not designated for publication.
The theft from WalMart on June 20 was charged as petit larceny, third offense. The
indictment stated the defendant had “previously been convicted on two or more other occasions
within the Commonwealth . . . of larceny, or an offense deemed punishable as larceny . . . .” The
defendant was convicted as charged in the indictment. The defendant contends the offense on
June 18, 2014 could not be used to enhance her punishment because she was not convicted of
that crime until after she committed the current offense.
The question of statutory construction of Code § 18.2-104 has been resolved during the
pendency of this appeal in Pitts v. Commonwealth, ___ Va. App. ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (Nov. 8,
2016). Accordingly, we affirm.
Affirmed.
-2-