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Eaton v. Commonwealth9/21/1990
ay on February 24.
Eaton's constitutional rights were not infringed in any respect by the interview of February 26. It was initiated at Eaton's request, thus complying with the Edwards criterion. Eaton asked Sgt. Dudley to return to the jail in order to deliver a picture of Judy McDonald. When Dudley arrived, he delivered the photograph to Eaton, gave him renewed Miranda warnings, and responded to Eaton's questions about Judy. Eaton then responded to a number of questions about the Custer, Marston, and McDonald crimes. The only statements made concerning the present case were to the effect that Judy was upset because the trooper was going to arrest her. Eaton described the positions in which the three were standing between the cars, but said nothing about the shooting of Trooper Hines. He made no reference to counsel during the interview. We conclude that the trial court not err in denying Eaton's motion to suppress his did statements.
VII. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE - TRIGGERMAN
Eaton assigns error to the court's denial of his motion to strike the evidence at the guilt phase. He contends that the evidence was insufficient to establish that he, rather than Judy McDonald, fired the shots that killed Trooper Hines. The short answer to that contention is that the jury was entitled to, and obviously did, accept the testimony of Holley. Despite Eaton's attack on the credibility of Holley as a "jailhouse snitch," Holley's testimony was corroborated in several respects: first, the circumstantial evidence of the relative locations of assailant and victim when the shots were fired; second, Eaton's murderous career on February 20 which cost three other lives; and third, Eaton's statements to the police in which he made no contention that Judy McDonald had been Hines' killer. Eaton's effort to blame the killing on Judy did not emerge until the trial, by which time Eaton's regard for her had evidently worn thin.
VIII. JURY INSTRUCTIONS - GUILT PHASE
The trial court granted the Commonwealth's proposed Instruction No. 6 which stated:
You may consider evidence that the defendant committed other offenses other than the offense for which he is on trial only as evidence of the defendant's motive; as evidence of the defendant's intent; as evidence of the defendant's knowledge; as evidence of the defendant's conduct and feelings toward the victim and relations between them; evidence of the defendant's malice; as evidence of the defendant's premeditation; as evidence of the defendant's opportunity in connection with the offense for which he is on trial and for no other purpose.
Eaton's proposed Instruction A, which was refused by the trial court, stated:
The court instructs the jury that you are not to consider evidence of the fact that defendant has plead guilty to homicide in Shenandoah County and the City of Salem, Virginia as evidence of his guilt of the capital murder of Trooper Jerry Hines.
In refusing Instruction A, the trial court ruled that it was duplicative of Instruction No. 6. We agree. The granted instruction, while not felicitously phrased, fairly covered the principle of law at issue. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to grant another, duplicative instruction. Stockton v. Commonwealth, 227 Va. 124, 145, 314 S.E.2d 371, 384, cert. denied, 469 U.S. 873 (1984).
Eaton's proposed Instructions B and C would have instructed the jury on the definition of a principal in the second degree and on the jury's duty to convict the defendant of the lesser offense if it had a reasonable
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