FROM
THE COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
OPINION
DONALD
W. LEMONS, CHIEF JUSTICE.
In this
appeal, we consider whether the Court of Appeals of Virginia
("Court of Appeals") erred when it found the
evidence was sufficient to uphold a conviction of voluntary
manslaughter in the Spotsylvania County Circuit Court
("trial court").
I.
Facts and Proceedings
A. The
Evidence at Trial
Laurence
Maria Smith ("Smith") was tried by a jury upon
indictments for the first-degree murder of her husband, Sean
McVae Smith ("Sean"), and use of a firearm during
the commission of a felony. Smith pled not guilty, and a
four-day jury trial was held.
At the
beginning of trial, the parties stipulated that Sean's
death was not a suicide, that he was killed when a single
bullet entered his mouth and struck his right carotid artery,
and that at the time the gun was fired, the muzzle was at
least four feet from Sean's body. Deputy Amanda Trippett
("Deputy Trippett"), testified that she answered a
911 call from Smith on the evening of March 16, 2015. A
recording of the call was then played for the jury. During
the call, Smith reported that she accidentally shot her
husband. Smith told Deputy Trippett "I was just
cleaning" the gun, and "I fired" it. Deputy
Trippett asked if Sean was breathing, and Smith responded she
did not know. Later during the call, Smith told Deputy
Trippett that Sean was not breathing. When Deputy Trippett
asked where the gun was, Smith replied she did not know.
Smith was crying and screaming hysterically during the call.
Deputy
Hernando Tavarez ("Deputy Tavarez") responded to
the house within three minutes of the 911 call and was the
first to arrive at the scene. Deputy Tavarez testified that a
small girl answered the door. Once he entered the home,
Deputy Tavarez heard Smith say, "it's my fault, I
should not have been playing with it." Deputy Tavarez
then saw Smith coming downstairs from the second floor. Smith
was hysterical, and her hands were covered in blood. Deputy
Tavarez directed Smith to stay downstairs while he went to
look for Sean. Deputy Tavarez found Sean lying face down at
the top of the stairs. Sean was still alive, but he was
unconscious and bleeding profusely. Rescue personnel then
arrived, so Deputy Tavarez stayed downstairs with Smith and
her two young daughters. Deputy Tavarez asked Smith where the
gun was, and Smith replied that the gun might be under her
husband's body. The police later found the gun in the
downstairs master bedroom. Deputy Tavarez testified that
rescue personnel were unable to save Sean, and he died at the
scene.
Deputy
Brandon Handy ("Deputy Handy") testified that he
arrived at the scene several minutes after Deputy Tavarez.
Smith's two young daughters were at the entrance to the
home screaming and crying. As Deputy Handy was getting the
girls out of the house, Smith also came to the doorway.
Smith's hands were covered in blood and she was screaming
to Deputy Handy "I shot him" and "arrest
me." Deputy Handy got Smith to sit down outside, and a
neighbor came and took the children next door. Smith then
told Deputy Handy that she had accidentally shot her husband.
She thought her gun was empty when she squeezed the trigger.
Detective
Earl Swift performed a gunshot residue test on Smith while
she was waiting outside of the house. Smith was upset and
crying while he performed the test. According to Det. Swift,
Smith kept saying things such as, "arrest me, I shot and
killed my husband, I deserve to die because I killed by
husband." The police determined that Sean was shot in an
upstairs bedroom while standing by the window but that he
walked into the hallway before collapsing. The gunshot
residue test came back positive.
Smith
was then taken to the police department and interviewed by
Detective Frank Corona ("Detective Corona"). A
video of Detective Corona's interview with Smith was
offered into evidence by the Commonwealth. During the
interview, Smith told Detective Corona that she and Sean had
planned to have the flooring replaced in the upstairs spare
bedroom. In preparation for installation of the new flooring,
Smith had moved several things from the room. She had also
moved the gun safe out of the closet into the room. Smith
said that Sean came home from work and told her they needed
to remove the guns from the safe before moving it any
further. Sean and Smith emptied the gun safe, and then Sean
sent Smith downstairs to their bedroom to get her
"peashooter." Smith explained the
"peashooter" was a tiny gun she kept in her purse.
According to Smith, Sean told her "don't forget to
uncock it," and "don't fuck around." Smith
told Detective Corona that she had "popped out the
magazine," racked the slide back, and saw a bullet eject
from the gun when she was in the bedroom. Smith stated that
she believed the gun then was empty. When Smith brought the
gun upstairs, her husband asked if she did "like I told
you."
Smith
told Sean "see, it's empty" and pulled the
trigger to show him it was unloaded. Smith explained to
Detective Corona that she thought the gun was empty when she
pulled the trigger. She wanted to show Sean she had the
skills to disarm a weapon. Smith told Detective Corona that
she "didn't have any aim." Later in the
interview, however, she admitted that she aimed towards the
window near where her husband was standing. Smith
"dropped the gun" after shooting her husband,
rushed to help him, and got his blood on her hands. Smith
told Det. Corona she then retrieved the gun and put it on her
bed before she called 911 because her daughters were in the
house. She then went back upstairs to try to help Sean.
When
Detective Corona asked Smith whether she and her husband had
argued prior to the shooting, Smith stated they had not. She
then clarified they had been "fussing" at each
other but not arguing. Later, Smith admitted that she and her
husband had been "arguing about twenty minutes before
all this went down" because she scratched one of his
guns when she moved the gun safe. Smith also admitted that
the argument upset her. However, Smith said she was no longer
angry when she shot her husband. Detective Corona testified
that blood was not visible on the gun when it was recovered.
He also testified that a swab of Smith's gun tested
negative for blood.
Smith
told Detective Corona that she had taken a gun safety course
and obtained a concealed weapon permit in 2011. She admitted
that in that class she learned never to point her gun at a
person unless she intended to kill. Smith told Detective
Corona that she had been "stupid" and
"retarded" because she did not follow the basic gun
safety rules. She explained that Sean always took care of the
weapons. Although Sean would let her load the weapons, she
said when unloading he would "check[] and double check[]
and triple check[] to make sure everything is empty."
Smith stated she wanted to show Sean that he could trust her
with the gun.
Smith's
two young daughters were questioned by police on the evening
of the shooting. A video of the daughters' statements was
introduced by the Commonwealth without objection. Both
daughters described their parents as "fighting"
prior to the shooting. The youngest daughter stated she heard
her parents "yelling" about her father's gun
safe. The older daughter indicated her father may have been
upset because one of the weapons was scratched. The older
daughter recalled her mother saying she accidentally pulled
the trigger when she was cleaning her gun. She later stated,
"I don't know if it's actually true." The
older daughter also said that, after the shooting, she and
her sister waited downstairs in the master bedroom before the
police came.
Smith
moved to strike the evidence when the Commonwealth rested.
The trial court denied the motion. Smith's first witness
was Kelly Johnson, a forensic biologist with the Virginia
Department of Forensic Science, who testified that
Smith's gun, the magazine, and the unspent cartridge were
visually inspected and tested for blood, and no blood was
found. Lauren Claytor, a forensic scientist in the firearm
section of the Department of Forensics, testified that she
tested the gun used in this case. She explained that this
particular gun was capable of being fired with the magazine
removed. She explained that the magazine would hold six
bullets and the firearm would also hold one in the firing
chamber. Claytor also testified that there would not be a
discernible difference in the weight of the firearm if it was
unloaded versus having one bullet in the chamber. However,
she also testified that there is a "peephole" in
the gun so a person can look to see if there is a cartridge
in the chamber.
Patrick
Lamb, a bloodstain pattern analyst with the Fredericksburg
Police Department, also testified on Smith's behalf. Lamb
explained that based on the blood patterns where Sean was
shot, there did not appear to be any signs of a struggle
between Smith and Sean. Smith also called Dr. Mary Beth
Williams, an expert in trauma, to testify on her behalf. Dr.
Williams testified that she watched the video of Smith's
interview with Detective Corona, and Smith's behavior
during that interview was consistent with someone who had
just experienced a traumatic event. Dr. Williams also met
with Smith on two occasions prior to trial, and she saw
behavior in those meetings that was also consistent with
someone who had experienced a traumatic event.
Smith
then renewed her motion to strike at the close of all the
evidence. She argued that the evidence proved she did not
know the firearm was loaded and that the shooting was an
accident. The circuit court again denied Smith's motion,
finding that, while the jury could agree with Smith that the
shooting was an accident, based upon the evidence presented
the jury could also find that Smith acted with malice.
B. The
Jury Instructions
The
Commonwealth and Smith submitted agreed upon jury
instructions to the circuit court. Jury instruction 6, a
"waterfall" instruction, included instructions for
first-degree murder as well as the lesser included offenses
of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and
involuntary manslaughter. Jury Instruction 6 provided, in
relevant part:
Mrs. Smith is charged with the crime of first degree murder.
The Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt each of
the ...