Judy Irene Deal Jarrells v. Commonwealth

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present: Judges Willis, Fitzpatrick and Overton
Argued at Salem, Virginia
JUDY IRENE DEAL JARRELLS
v. Record No. 1256-95-3 MEMORANDUM OPINION * BY
JUDGE NELSON T. OVERTON
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA MAY 7, 1996
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
B. A. Davis, III, Judge
Mary E. Harkins for appellant.
Richard H. Rizk, Assistant Attorney General
(James S. Gilmore, III, Attorney General;
Thomas C. Daniel, Assistant Attorney General,
on brief), for appellee.
Judy Irene Deal Jarrells was convicted by a jury of acting
as a principal in the second degree to first degree murder.
Jarrells appeals, contending that the evidence at trial was
insufficient to sustain her conviction. We disagree and affirm
the trial court.
The parties are fully conversant with the record in the
cause, and a recitation of the facts is unnecessary to this
memorandum opinion.
When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged on
appeal, we must construe the evidence in the light most favorable
to the Commonwealth, granting to it all reasonable inferences
fairly deducible therefrom. Higginbotham v. Commonwealth, 216
*
Pursuant to Code § 17-116.010 this opinion is not
designated for publication.
Va. 349, 352, 218 S.E.2d 534, 537 (1975). The inferences drawn
from circumstantial evidence are within the province of the jury
and not the appellate court so long as the inferences are
reasonable and justified. O'Brien v. Commonwealth, 4 Va. App.
261, 263, 356 S.E.2d 449, 450 (1987).
To convict Jarrells as a principal in the second degree, the
Commonwealth had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was
present during the offense and aided, abetted, or encouraged the
killer in his crime. Augustine v. Commonwealth, 226 Va. 120,
124, 306 S.E.2d 886, 888-89 (1983); Rollston v. Commonwealth, 11
Va. App. 535, 539, 399 S.E.2d 823, 825 (1991). Furthermore, the
appellant must have shared the criminal intent of the principal
in the first degree. Triplett v. Commonwealth, 141 Va. 577, 586,
127 S.E. 486, 489 (1925); Rollston, 11 Va. App. at 539, 399
S.E.2d at 825.
Here, Jarrells was present in the house at the murder.
Evidence was presented that Jarrells had requested several other
people to kill her husband. The man who eventually did shoot her
husband testified that she had solicited his help just prior to
the murder. Thus, taken in the light most favorable to the
Commonwealth, the evidence is sufficient to sustain Jarrells'
conviction.
Because the jury's verdict was supported by the evidence, we
affirm the conviction.
Affirmed.
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