Opinion ID: 1226660
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence of Capital Murder and Robbery

Text: Swann contends that the evidence is insufficient to show that his act of killing Richter was willful, deliberate and premeditated. We disagree. The evidence that Swann (1) armed himself before looking for a house to rob, (2) entered Richter's house wearing a mask, and (3) aimed and fired the weapon at Richter when Richter charged him, amply supports the verdicts. Barnes v. Commonwealth, 234 Va. 130, 136, 360 S.E.2d 196, 201 (1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1036, 108 S.Ct. 763, 98 L.Ed.2d 779 (1988) (evidence that armed masked burglar shot persons who resisted sufficient to show willful, deliberate, and premeditated killings). Nor was the jury required to accept Swann's claim in one of his confessions that Richter charged at me and I didn't have any thing to do but shoot him. As we said in Barnes, one who, armed with a deadly weapon, approaches others intending to rob them, will not be heard to assert that he was provoked by the resistance of his victims to his criminal enterprise. Id. at 136, 360 S.E.2d at 200. Even if the evidence is sufficient to convict him of both crimes, Swann claims that the Commonwealth produced insufficient evidence to corroborate his confession. We disagree. The corroboration required is limited to the facts constituting the corpus delicti. Watkins v. Commonwealth, 238 Va. 341, 348, 385 S.E.2d 50, 54 (1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1074, 110 S.Ct. 1797, 108 L.Ed.2d 798 (1990). And where the accused had fully confessed the crimes only slight corroborative evidence is necessary to establish the corpus delicti. Id. 238 Va. at 348-49, 385 S.E.2d at 54. The corpus delicti of a homicide is proof of the victim's death from the criminal act or agency of another person. Id. And the corpus delicti of a robbery consists of evidence of violent force upon a victim coupled with evidence that property was taken from the victim. Id. at 349, 385 S.E.2d at 54; see Williams v. Commonwealth, 234 Va. 168, 175, 360 S.E.2d 361, 366 (1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1020, 108 S.Ct. 733, 98 L.Ed.2d 681 (1988). Obviously, evidence of Richter's death from a shotgun wound establishes the corpus delicti of his homicide. And evidence of the violence inflicted upon Richter, coupled with evidence indicating that after Richter was shot, his pants pockets were turned inside out and no money was found in his wallet, suffice to show the corpus delicti of Richter's robbery. Thus, there is sufficient corroborative evidence of both crimes.