COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

Present: Chief Judge Huff, Judges Russell and Malveaux 

Argued at Richmond, Virginia 

KELLY A. DICKERSON 

 MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY 

v. Record No. 0821-17-2 JUDGE WESLEY G. RUSSELL, JR. 

 MAY 8, 2018 

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA 

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF GREENSVILLE COUNTY 

W. Allan Sharrett, Judge 

 Sarah Ashley Link (Link Law Firm, PLLC, on brief), for appellant. 

 Elizabeth Kiernan Fitzgerald, Assistant Attorney General (Mark R. 

Herring, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee. 

 Kelly A. Dickerson, appellant, was convicted of seven counts of felony embezzlement and 

twelve counts of misdemeanor embezzlement in violation of Code § 18.2-111.1

 On appeal, she 

does not contest that the embezzlements occurred; rather, she argues that the evidence was 

insufficient to establish that she was the perpetrator of the offenses. We disagree and affirm her 

convictions. 

 

 *

 Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not designated for publication. 

1

 Code § 18.2-111 incorporates the monetary limits found in Code §§ 18.2-95 and 

18.2-96 by express reference to those statutes. As a result, an embezzlement is punished as 

either grand or petit larceny depending upon the amount embezzled. At the relevant time, the 

grand larceny limit was $200. Code § 18.2-95. Accordingly, embezzlements involving more 

than $200 were punished as felonies while embezzlements involving less than $200 were 

punished as misdemeanors. 

UNPUBLISHED 
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BACKGROUND 

 When examining the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a conviction, “we view the 

evidence, and all inferences reasonably drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the 

Commonwealth. ‘It is our duty to affirm the trial court’s judgment unless that judgment is 

plainly wrong or without evidence to support it.’” Reid v. Commonwealth, 65 Va. App. 745, 

753, 781 S.E.2d 373, 377 (2016) (internal citation omitted) (quoting Muhammad v. 

Commonwealth, 269 Va. 451, 536, 619 S.E.2d 16, 65 (2005)). 

So viewed, the evidence established that appellant worked as an assistant manager at 

Piggly Wiggly in Emporia in 2015. While reviewing security footage of the cash registers for an 

unrelated cause, Chris Harris, a Piggly Wiggly produce manager, observed appellant conducting 

an unusual number of returns under unusual circumstances. On nineteen occasions from August 

30 through December 19, 2015, appellant processed returns at the registers without any 

customers being present. 

 In some of the transactions, appellant, after keying into the register a numeric value to 

represent the total number of the item purportedly being returned, scanned the item purportedly 

being returned. On other occasions, video footage showed appellant simply keying the return 

into the register without scanning the item. Many of the returns consisted of cans of Similac 

Alimentum (Alimentum), a type of baby formula for sensitive or sick children. Other returns 

included grocery items. 

 All return transactions produced receipts from the store’s internal computer system 

showing the “return,” but no corresponding receipts existed for the sale of the items purportedly 

returned. Despite the lack of corresponding sales for the returns, each register used by appellant 

“balanced” at the end of the night when the paperwork and bank deposits were prepared. 
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 Although the store’s inventory system did not allow for an active tracking of how many 

items were in stock for a particular item, Harris was able to compile data regarding sales and 

returns in the relevant time period. Upon request of law enforcement, Harris prepared a 

document that demonstrated the disparity between items sold and items that appellant “returned.” 

For example, Harris testified that, based on his documentation of inventory, in the time period 

covering the dates of appellant’s return transactions, the store sold only one can of Alimentum, 

yet appellant processed “returns” for over one hundred cans. 

 The cashiers at Piggly Wiggly were known to run off each other’s registers because they 

all knew each other’s login numbers, resulting in some of the receipts having other cashiers’ 

names on them. Thus, without the video establishing that appellant had in fact processed the 

returns, the register receipts would make it appear that other cashiers had been making some of 

the returns. Furthermore, managers and assistant managers are responsible for counting the 

registers every night and preparing the bank deposit. On the dates of the purported returns, 

appellant was the closing assistant manager, was responsible for making sure the registers 

“balanced,” and prepared the bank deposits. 

 Polly Daniel, senior manager during the relevant period, was responsible for training 

appellant for positions ranging from cashier to assistant manager. Although the two worked 

together, appellant liked to do office work, so Daniel let her “do the paperwork and stuff.” 

Daniel testified that once appellant was promoted to assistant manager, appellant’s duties 

included making the nightly bank deposit. 

 Daniel described how the deposit process was supposed to work. A manager or assistant 

manager, usually appellant, would calculate the drawers at the end of the night, put the money 

into a bank bag, lock it, and transport it to the bank. Daniel explained that the deposit bag was a 

cloth bag with a zipper and a lock on it. After being zipped, the lock had to be pushed down to 
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secure the bag. Accordingly, it was possible to leave the store with the bag zipped closed but not 

locked, remove cash from the bag, and push the lock closed before dropping the bag off at the 

bank. Once the bag was locked, however, it could not be opened again without the key. The 

only other employee who sometimes made bank runs did not have a key to open the deposit bag. 

 Daniel acknowledged that the key to unlock the bank bags was kept in a drawer in the 

store office. The office was subject to video surveillance. Daniel testified that she watched all 

of the office videos and did not observe any unauthorized employee accessing either the key or 

the safe.2

 Further, she did not observe anyone, including appellant, directly “pocket money” in 

the office. 

 Virginia State Police Senior Special Agent Steward Williams assisted the Emporia Police 

Department in investigating this case. He interviewed appellant, and she denied taking any 

money from Piggly Wiggly. When confronted with the videos, appellant explained that she 

normally conducted her returns when it was less busy and no customers were around. She 

claimed Daniel “normally” told her to process the returns; however, Daniel testified that she 

never asked appellant to process a return for baby formula and that it was a highly unusual 

practice to process returns without a customer present. 

Appellant testified at trial. The thrust of her testimony is that she had been set up by 

Daniel, who she claims was the perpetrator of the embezzlement scheme. Appellant 

acknowledged that she is a convicted felon with forty years “over the top of [her] head.” 

 In convicting appellant, the court concluded: 

 Now, it’s clear, and the defendant herself admitted, that 

what was taking place here had to be -- the money had to be 

relieved from the bag or there was going to be an overage. There 

 2

 For some of the dates in question, the office videos were introduced into evidence; 

however, the office videos for other dates were not introduced into evidence. The videos 

depicting appellant’s actions at the various cash registers were introduced for all of the relevant 

dates. 
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was no purpose in doing what appeared to be being done, be taking 

place, if the money wasn’t going to be relieved from the bag, 

because that’s the only place the theft could take place. 

 The court explained that the “locked bag isn’t really a locked bag”; it does not 

automatically lock because it does not need to be “thumb locked” before a manager leaves the 

store. “You can go anywhere you want and remove money without any difficulty, without any 

hint or possibility of being seen by anyone.” The court then found: 

 The [c]ourt has judged the testimony of the witnesses, 

judged their manner and appearance while testifying, their interest 

in the outcome of this case, their bias, the way they’ve testified. 

It’s poured this through the crucible of common sense and it finds, 

as trier of fact, that Ms. Daniel and Mr. Harris were in fact quite 

credible and that Ms. Dickerson was asking the [c]ourt to engage 

in leaps of conjecture that it simply could not do, consistent with 

maintaining its common sense. 

 This appeal followed. 

ANALYSIS 

“When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged on appeal, this Court ‘must affirm 

the conviction unless it is plainly wrong or without evidence to support it.’” Gerald v. 

Commonwealth, 68 Va. App. 167, 172, 805 S.E.2d 407, 410 (2017) (quoting Spencer v. City of 

Norfolk, 271 Va. 460, 463, 628 S.E.2d 356, 358 (2006)). Under this familiar standard of review, 

“[a]n appellate court does not ‘ask itself whether it believes that the evidence at the trial 

established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’” Williams v. Commonwealth, 278 Va. 190, 193, 

677 S.E.2d 280, 282 (2009) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-19 (1979)). 

“Rather, the relevant question is whether ‘any rational trier of fact could have found the essential 

elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.’” Id. (quoting Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319). 

Appellant was convicted of embezzlement in violation of Code § 18.2-111, which 

provides that: 
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If any person wrongfully and fraudulently use, dispose of, conceal 

or embezzle any money, bill, note, check, order, draft, bond, 

receipt, bill of lading or any other personal property, tangible or 

intangible, which he shall have received for another or for his

employer, principal or bailor, or by virtue of his office, trust, or 

employment, or which shall have been entrusted or delivered to 

him by another or by any court, corporation or company, he shall 

be guilty of embezzlement. Proof of embezzlement shall be 

sufficient to sustain the charge of larceny. 

Appellant contends that, although the evidence establishes that the charged 

embezzlements occurred, the evidence did not eliminate the possibility that someone else 

committed them. She argues that “multiple people had access to the office while it was 

unlocked, and with issues concerning the deposit bag remaining unlocked, the safe open, and the 

petty cash drawers open or unlocked, countless people could have had access to money at any 

given time . . . .” 

Given the video and inventory evidence, it cannot be disputed that appellant completed 

multiple fraudulent returns without a customer present. Despite the store selling only one can of 

Alimentum in the relevant period, appellant processed returns for more than one hundred cans. 

Because no money was removed from the register and given to a customer or other deduction 

made when the fraudulent returns were processed,3

 the registers necessarily contained more 

money than the register receipts indicated at the end of the night.4 Thus, the fact that the store’s 

paperwork reflected that the registers balanced at the end of the night when the bank deposit was 

 3

 In addition to cash returns, returns potentially could be made by customers who 

purchased items without cash, such as through the use of benefits from the United States 

Department of Agriculture’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and 

Children, commonly referred to as WIC. Such transactions that do not involve cash are 

processed through the use of a card to effectuate the electronic benefits transfer. 

4

 In response to a question from the trial court, appellant confirmed that the fraudulent 

transactions would have created overages in the registers each day. 
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prepared means that someone involved in processing the registers at the end of the night and 

making the bank deposit was stealing the money associated with the fraudulent returns. 

The evidence also established that only the manager and assistant managers closed the 

registers and prepared the deposits. On the relevant nights, appellant, who was the person seen 

on video processing the fraudulent returns, was working, and testimony established that she 

closed the registers and prepared the deposits. 

Recognizing this, appellant offered that Daniel had access to the deposits and testified 

that she processed the returns in question at the direction of Daniel, her superior. As factfinder, 

the trial court heard appellant’s alternative theory of Daniel as the perpetrator and rejected it, 

finding the testimony unbelievable and crediting the testimony that implicated appellant. 

The law is clear that determining the credibility of the witnesses and the weight afforded 

the testimony of those witnesses are matters left to the trier of fact, who has the ability to hear the 

witnesses and observe them as they testify. Burnette v. Commonwealth, 60 Va. App. 462, 476, 

729 S.E.2d 740, 746 (2012). Accordingly, “where a trial court sitting without a jury hears 

witnesses testify and observes their demeanor on the stand, it has the right to believe or 

disbelieve their statements.” Wilson v. Commonwealth, 46 Va. App. 73, 87, 615 S.E.2d 500, 

507 (2005) (quoting Morning v. Commonwealth, 37 Va. App. 679, 686, 561 S.E.2d 23, 26 

(2002)). As a result, the “conclusions of the fact finder on issues of witness credibility ‘may 

only be disturbed on appeal if this Court finds that [the witness’] testimony was “inherently 

incredible, or so contrary to human experience as to render it unworthy of belief.”’” Johnson v. 

Commonwealth, 58 Va. App. 303, 315, 709 S.E.2d 175, 181 (2011) (alteration in original) 

(quoting Robertson v. Commonwealth, 12 Va. App. 854, 858, 406 S.E.2d 417, 419 (1991)). 

Here, even though appellant testified that she processed the returns at the direction of 

Daniel and did not embezzle the money, the trial court was entitled to discredit her testimony and 
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believe the conflicting testimony offered by the Commonwealth. In light of the other evidence 

presented, the trial court could conclude that appellant committed the offenses. 

Appellant also argues that there is no video evidence of her actually taking the money 

and that other people had access to the places (registers, the office, the bank, etc.) where the 

money was located at various points in time. The lack of an eyewitness who saw or a video that 

shows appellant taking the money does not entitle her to an acquittal. “Circumstantial evidence 

is as competent and is entitled to as much weight as direct evidence, provided it is sufficiently 

convincing.” Stamper v. Commonwealth, 220 Va. 260, 272, 257 S.E.2d 808, 817 (1979). 

“Circumstantial evidence is not viewed in isolation. ‘While no single piece of evidence may be 

sufficient, the combined force of many concurrent and related circumstances, each insufficient in 

itself, may lead a reasonable mind irresistibly to a conclusion.’” Commonwealth v. Hudson, 265 

Va. 505, 514, 578 S.E.2d 781, 786 (2003) (quoting Derr v. Commonwealth, 242 Va. 413, 425, 

410 S.E.2d 662, 669 (1991)). Where “[t]he circumstances . . . all concur to form an unbroken 

chain which links the defendant to the crime beyond a reasonable doubt,” the circumstantial 

evidence is sufficient to support the conviction. Bishop v. Commonwealth, 227 Va. 164, 169, 

313 S.E.2d 390, 393 (1984). 

There is ample evidence in the record for a reasonable factfinder to conclude beyond a 

reasonable doubt that appellant committed the offenses. It cannot be disputed that she processed 

the fraudulent returns. Other evidence established that she was responsible for closing the 

registers, preparing the bank deposits, and taking the deposits from the store to the bank on the 

relevant nights. Thus, she knew that the registers had to have overages, but still managed to 

“balance” the registers and have that total match the bank deposits she was to make. Coupling 

this anomaly with the other evidence, including appellant’s access to the deposits when she 

transported them to the bank, provides a sufficient basis for a reasonable factfinder to conclude 
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that she committed the offenses. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in rejecting appellant’s 

hypothesis of innocence. 

CONCLUSION 

 For the reasons stated above, the trial court did not err in convicting appellant of nineteen 

counts of embezzlement. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. 

Affirmed.