Opinion ID: 1310716
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence as to Stamper's record of previous convictions.

Text: Leslie G. Wright, Supervisor of Records of the Virginia Department of Corrections, related Stamper's penal history. Stamper was sentenced in 1972 to serve 20 years for the 1971 armed robbery. He was also sentenced in 1972 to serve 12 months in jail for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and in 1974 was sentenced to six months in jail as an accessory after the fact to an escape from the penal system. He was released on parole in 1976. When Wright testified that Stamper had been convicted within the penal system of certain offenses, including stealing from the kitchen and committing a homosexual act, Stamper's counsel objected, moved that this evidence be stricken and, after ascertaining from Wright that the convictions had not been obtained in a court of record, moved for a mistrial. The trial court promptly sustained the objection when interposed, and directed the jury to disregard any evidence about Stamper's stealing or homosexual activity in the penal system. The motion for a mistrial was denied, but the trial court again admonished the jury to disregard any evidence as to Stamper's conduct within the penitentiary system. Although the trial court's action in denying the motion for a mistrial is the subject of an assignment of error, the issue has been neither briefed nor argued. If evidence as to acts committed by Stamper in prison was inadmissible, which we do not here decide, the trial court's prompt corrective action was sufficient to eliminate any prejudicial effect. Lewis v. Commonwealth, 211 Va. 80, 83, 175 S.E.2d 236, 238 (1970). We hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Stamper's motion for a mistrial.