Opinion ID: 1242445
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The court erred in permitting the introduction of videotape evidence from Spencer's former trials.

Text: E. The court erred in allowing the Commonwealth to prove that from January 1, 1987 until the date of trial, there had been no similar crimes in the areas of Arlington, Richmond, or Chesterfield, except for the four murders in which Spencer was implicated. F. The court should not have permitted the Commonwealth to argue that certain differences between the four crime scenes could be explained by the murderer's skill increasing with experience. [2] G. The court should have instructed the jury to disregard a part of the Commonwealth's closing argument which, the defendant contends, was not supported by the evidence. Because of Spencer's failure to state the reasons for his objections to the foregoing with reasonable certainty at the time of the rulings, we will not consider those assignments of error. Rule 5:25.