Present: All the Justices
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
OPINION BY JUSTICE LEROY R. HASSELL, SR.
v. Record No. 980325 November 6, 1998
WILLIAM ALAN PRESLEY
FROM THE COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
In this appeal, we consider whether the evidence was
sufficient to support the defendant's conviction for voluntary
manslaughter.
Tried in Loudoun County by a jury and convicted of
voluntary manslaughter, William Alan Presley was sentenced to
one year and six months imprisonment. Presley appealed his
conviction to the Court of Appeals. He asserted that the
evidence was insufficient to support his conviction because
the Commonwealth purportedly failed to prove that he killed
the victim, Sandra D. Laing. The Court of Appeals, in an
unpublished opinion, agreed with the defendant, reversed the
judgment of the trial court, and set aside the conviction.
Presley v. Commonwealth, Record No. 2265-96-4 (January 20,
1998). We awarded the Commonwealth an appeal.
We have enunciated the following principles of appellate
review which are pertinent here. When a defendant challenges
on appeal the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his
conviction, it is the duty of an appellate court to examine
the evidence that tends to support the conviction and to
permit the conviction to stand unless the conviction is
plainly wrong or without evidentiary support. Commonwealth v.
Jenkins, 255 Va. 516, 520, 499 S.E.2d 263, 265 (1998); Tyler
v. Commonwealth, 254 Va. 162, 165-66, 487 S.E.2d 221, 223
(1997). If there is evidence to support the conviction, an
appellate court is not permitted to substitute its own
judgment for that of the finder of fact, even if the appellate
court might have reached a different conclusion. Jenkins, 255
Va. at 520, 499 S.E.2d at 265; Tyler, 254 Va. at 165-66, 487
S.E.2d at 223; Cable v. Commonwealth, 243 Va. 236, 239, 415
S.E.2d 218, 220 (1992).
Additionally, upon appellate review, the evidence and all
inferences reasonably deducible therefrom must be examined in
the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the prevailing
party in the trial court. Any evidence properly admitted at
trial is subject to this review. Jenkins, 255 Va. at 521, 499
S.E.2d at 265.
The following facts are relevant to our disposition of
this appeal. Presley, Laing, and William P. Rossbach resided
together in a house in Loudoun County. Each of the occupants
used a separate bedroom. Presley and Laing were described as
"boyfriend" and "girlfriend," and they had a sexual
relationship.
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On July 31, 1995, about 4:30 p.m., Rossbach drove Laing
in his car to visit a physician. Laing had complained of
having "the flu or something" and feeling "really sick."
Laing and Rossbach returned from the doctor's office between
5:30 and 6:00 p.m.
Earlier that day, before Rossbach took Laing to the
doctor's office, she stumbled and hit her head on a doorknob.
In response to Rossbach's question "[a]re you all right up
there?", Laing said, "Yeah. I just kind of slipped."
About midnight on July 31, 1995, Sandra Everhart arrived
at the house. She went to Rossbach's bedroom, removed her
clothing, and attempted to have sexual intercourse with him.
Rossbach, who had "too much to drink," was unable to have
sexual relations with Everhart. Presley entered Rossbach's
room and told Everhart, in Rossbach's presence, that Presley
wanted to have sexual intercourse with her. Presley and
Rossbach began to argue, and Laing, who had heard the
conversation, appeared at the door to the room.
Laing was upset, and she told Presley to leave the room.
She also directed Everhart to leave. Rossbach, in an effort
to humiliate Presley, told Laing that he had not forgotten
about a sexual affair that Laing had with a man named Tom.
Presley had not known about this relationship. Laing denied
the relationship, but Presley became enraged.
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Sometime between midnight and 1:00 a.m., after Everhart
left the house, Rossbach heard "banging and stuff going on."
Presley and Laing were in her bedroom arguing about the affair
she purportedly had with Tom. Rossbach entered the bedroom,
told Presley and Laing to "[c]ut it out," and went downstairs
to the kitchen. While he was in the kitchen, Rossbach heard
"a bunch of yelling," and he heard Laing say, "[p]lease don't
hit me."
While Rossbach was walking up the stairs to return to his
room, he heard Presley call Laing a "fucking bitch." Rossbach
went to Laing's bedroom. She was on the floor naked, and
Presley had "his hand around her throat." Rossbach said,
"[w]hat the hell?" Presley, who was choking her, stopped.
Presley "was pretty much just kind of yelling in grief, and
[he] let [Laing] go as soon as [Rossbach] said 'what the hell
is going on?'" Presley stated, "[s]orry, God. I really
messed up." After Rossbach saw Presley with his hand around
Laing's neck, she did not move. Later, when Rossbach entered
Laing's room, he observed that she was clothed, lying on her
bed, snoring.
Alvin D. Blankenship, a Virginia State Trooper, spoke
with Presley by telephone sometime between midnight and 2:00
a.m. on August 1, 1995. Presley told Blankenship that Presley
wanted the State Police to remove Laing from his house because
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she "was a whore" and was "using drugs." Presley also stated
that "sometimes he [got] so mad that he just [felt] like
knocking [Laing] in the head." Blankenship warned Presley
that if he committed any acts of violence, he would be
arrested. Presley responded that the Loudoun County Police
always arrested him when the police officers went to his home.
About 1:46 a.m. on August 1, 1995, Sergeant Eric Noble, a
deputy sheriff with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Department,
responded to a call from the defendant's home regarding an
unconscious female. Sergeant Noble arrived at the house,
Presley met him at the front door, and permitted him to enter.
When Sergeant Noble entered Laing's bedroom, she was lying on
the floor, her breathing was extremely "ragged and labored,
and [she] appeared to be in [a] very serious condition."
After Sergeant Noble used his radio to request medical
help, he asked Presley what had happened. Presley stated that
"he beat the hell out of her on the floor, that he had hit her
with the chair." Sergeant Noble saw pieces of a broken chair
above the victim's head. He also observed a large tear on the
right side of her shorts, a small amount of blood on the
victim's left thigh, and small spots of blood on the carpet
adjacent to her body.
Another deputy sheriff, Clete Kresge, arrived at
Presley's residence. Presley stated to Deputy Kresge twice,
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"I'll admit I did hit her tonight." Presley also told Deputy
Kresge later that morning, "[s]he had pissed me off tonight
. . . I tore her to shreds." Kresge observed that the
victim's blouse was torn, and her eye was discolored.
Everhart testified at trial that she did not notice any
bruises or physical marks on the victim's face when she had
been at Presley's house on July 31. Rossbach also testified
that Laing's eye was not discolored, and she did not have
bruises on her body before her altercation with the defendant.
Laing was transported to the Loudoun Hospital Center
where she died at 4:14 a.m. Dr. Frances P. Field, an
assistant chief medical examiner for the Northern Virginia
District Medical Examiner's Office, performed an autopsy on
Laing's body. Field observed that Laing's body had a bruise
on the right eye and a small reddish abrasion or scrape mark
on the left forehead. Her tongue was bruised, and numerous
bruises were found on Laing's legs, back, arms, and elbow.
Dr. Field determined that Laing had a large subdural
hematoma on the left side and top of her head. A subdural
hematoma is an accumulation of blood between the covering and
surface of the brain. Dr. Field performed a microscopic
examination on blood taken from Laing's subdural hematoma.
The absence of inflammatory cells on the dura indicated to Dr.
Field that the hemorrhage was the result of "very recent
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bleeding in the head, within several hours of death, or
minutes . . . ." Dr. Field conducted a microscopic
examination of the tissue around the victim's eye, and she
concluded that the presence of intact red cells and a small
infiltration of white blood cells or inflammatory cells
indicated that this injury occurred within four hours of
death. Dr. Field testified that the bruise on the back of the
victim's left thigh and left elbow were received within
several hours before death.
Dr. Field opined within a reasonable degree of medical
certainty that the victim's subdural hematoma was caused by
blunt force trauma. Dr. Field stated that the victim's
history of chronic alcohol abuse, her extensive use of
prescription drugs, the victim's malformed brainstem, and the
curvature of her spine did not contribute to her death. Dr.
Field testified that the victim's fall, which occurred before
4:30 p.m. on July 31, 1995, did not contribute to her death.
Presley adduced evidence at trial that the victim's death
was attributable to causes other than his acts. Several
factual witnesses testified that the victim had poor motor
skills, that she fell frequently, and that she had bruises on
her legs. Nicholas T. Lappas, who qualified as an expert
witness on the subjects of toxicology and pharmacology,
testified that in his opinion, Laing's death was consistent
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with a drug overdose caused by the prescription medication
that she had ingested. Dr. John E. Adams, a forensic
pathologist, testified that Laing's death was related to a
congenital deformity of her spine and skull combined with her
chronic liver disease. Dr. Adams also opined that the cause
of Laing's death was a "head injury with subdural hematoma,
combined with drugs and alcohol." Dr. John H. Lossing, a
neurologist, testified that Laing died of suffocation because
the "doctors in the emergency room were unable to successfully
intubate her." Finally, during the defendant's cross-
examination of Dr. Field, she testified that the subdural
hematoma occurred within 24 hours of the victim's death.
The Commonwealth must prove, as an essential element of
its case, that the victim's death resulted from the criminal
agency of the defendant. Opanowich v. Commonwealth, 196 Va.
342, 355, 83 S.E.2d 432, 439-40 (1954). We stated in Bowie v.
Commonwealth, 184 Va. 381, 390, 35 S.E.2d 345, 348 (1945),
that "[d]eath must be proved either by direct testimony or by
presumptive evidence of the strongest kind; but the existence
of the criminal agency as the cause of the death and the
identity of the agency may be established by circumstantial
evidence."
We hold that there is sufficient evidence of record which
would have permitted the jury to find beyond a reasonable
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doubt that Presley's acts caused Laing's death. The jury,
which considered all the evidence, was entitled to find that
Presley hit Laing with a blunt object and that the resulting
trauma produced the large subdural hematoma which caused her
death. Field's medical testimony, the substantial physical
evidence, and Presley's admissions that "he beat the hell out
of [Laing] on the floor" and that he had "tor[n] [Laing] to
shreds" are facts which would support the jury's finding that
Presley's acts caused the victim's death.
We do recognize that the defendant presented evidence
that the victim's death may have been attributable to other
causes. However, it is the province of the jury, rather than
an appellate court, to weigh the facts and to judge the
credibility of the various lay and expert witnesses.
For these reasons, we will reverse the judgment of the
Court of Appeals, and we will reinstate Presley's conviction
in accordance with the trial court's judgment order.
Reversed and final judgment.
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