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Reid v. Commonwealth6/14/1994
MEMORANDUM OPINION BY JUDGE JAMES W. BENTON, JR.
Richard Allen Reid appeals his convictions for voluntary manslaughter, in violation of Code § 18.2-35, and stabbing, cutting, or wounding another person in the commission of a felony, in violation of Code § 18.2-53. Reid contends that the trial Judge erred in failing to find that Reid acted in self-defense when he killed Willis Savage. We agree and reverse the convictions.
I.
Officer J. A. Coleman testified that he received a call to investigate a stabbing at Reid's apartment. When Coleman entered the apartment at 11:44 p.m. he found Savage's body. Reid told him, "He came at me and I had to defend myself." Coleman testified that he noticed no injuries to Reid. Officer Charles R. Terrell, Jr., who also responded to Reid's apartment, testified that Reid showed no signs of intoxication. Reid told Terrell that "[Savage] had a knife. I took it from him and I struck him with it."
Several hours after the police arrived, Reid gave a statement to police. He stated that he and Savage were involved in a long standing romantic relationship and recounted the following events preceding Savage's death:
I came home about 11:00 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. [Savage] was inside my apartment when I walked in. Well, let me get this all straight. He came to my apartment Friday night about 2:00 a.m., Saturday morning. I don't remember the exact time. He got to my apartment, but it was around 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. He spent the week end with me. Sunday morning, I left home and went to church. That was a little after 10:00 a.m. I got back home about 3:00 p.m. and he was gone. I left home today about 3 o'clock and came back home about 11:00 tonight and [Savage] was there. Me and [Savage] had a argument. I asked him why he left when I told him to stay home. He hit me in my face with his fist. He knocked off my glasses. We got to fighting. I struck at him with my hands to get him off of me. Then we fell on the floor. You see, when he slapped me in my face, he pulled a butcher knife from somewhere. He told me you can start at me if you want to, but I got something for you. That's when I saw the butcher knife in his hand. I got the knife away from him and I struck at him with the knife. Then he said, [Reid], you stabbed me. Then he fell on the floor where you found him. Then I called the Rescue Squad and the Police.
Dr. Faruk Presswalla, a deputy chief medical examiner, testified that Savage died from a single stab wound to the chest that cut the aorta. Dr. Presswalla also testified that although there was only a single external wound to Savage's chest, the sharp object that caused the wound had in fact travelled in three separate directions. He testified that such a "redirection" pattern is consistent with a knife being inserted into the body, then twice partially withdrawn, and twice reinserted. Dr. Presswalla also testified, however, that "if after the knife is thrust into the victim there is still a struggle in which the victim and the assailant move together with the knife still there then, of course, it could get redirected and you could have redirected paths." Dr. Presswalla further testified that Savage had a single superficial wound to the web between his thumb and index finger on his left hand. He characterized it as a "defense wound" typically incurred by someone attempting to ward off a blow or grasp the knife used by the attacker. Finally Dr. Presswalla noted that Savage had a blood alcohol level of .20 and a urine alcohol level of .24.
Reid testified that when he left his apartment that morning to go to church, Savage was in the apartment. When he retu
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