Opinion ID: 1262796
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Granting and Refusal of Instructions

Text: Stewart complains that the court should not have granted the following instructions, both offered by the Commonwealth, because they say essentially the same thing and are confusing. The pertinent parts of these instructions follow: The Court instructs the jury that willful, deliberate and premeditated means a specific intent to kill, adopted at some time before the killing, but which need not exist for any particular length of time. [A]n intent to kill may be formed only a moment before the fatal act is committed provided the accused had time to think and did intend to kill. We do not regard these instructions as either duplicative or confusing. The second instruction makes more specific the length of time that must exist before the killing may be considered to have been premeditated, and also puts the necessary proviso upon a killing only a moment before the fatal act is committed. The court did not err in granting these instructions. Next, Stewart maintains that the court erred in refusing some of his proposed instructions, one of which was Instruction C, which read as follows: THE COURT INSTRUCTS THE JURY THAT you have heard testimony in this case from an expert on blood spatters who testified for the Commonwealth. When you evaluate this testimony you may consider the fact that the Defendant did not have an opportunity to have [his] own expert evaluate the evidence independently or offer independent assistance in preparing a cross-examination of the Commonwealth's expert. The court properly rejected this instruction. It is argumentative and contrary to the trial court's ruling that Stewart was not entitled to the appointment of an expert in the field of blood spatter analysis. Because Stewart neither briefed nor argued his assignment of error relating to Instruction K, we do not consider it on appeal. Rule 5:27(e); Eaton, 240 Va. at 245, 397 S.E.2d at 390. We find no merit in Stewart's objection to the court's method of numbering the Commonwealth's proposed instructions and placing letter designations on Stewart's proposed instructions.