Opinion ID: 1058852
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion for Forensic Expert

Text: Juniper contends [t]he trial court erred in failing to entertain and rule upon Juniper's filed Motion for a Forensic Expert. The record contains no such motion, although Juniper filed a document styled Memorandum in Support of Motion for Appointment of Forensic Expert. Juniper cites only the Memorandum in his argument on this assignment of error. The trial court never ruled on Juniper's request for a forensics expert, but the record reflects no request for a ruling or that the trial court was ever alerted to the existence of the Memorandum. Therefore, Juniper has waived any claim under this assignment of error because he was required to request a ruling from the trial court and he failed to do so. Lenz v. Commonwealth, 261 Va. 451, 463, 544 S.E.2d 299, 306, cert. denied, 534 U.S. 1003, 122 S.Ct. 481, 151 L.Ed.2d 395 (2001) (failure to request ruling on pretrial motion waived issue on appeal); Riner v. Commonwealth, 268 Va. 296, 323-25, 601 S.E.2d 555, 571-72 (2004) (failure to alert trial court to fact that it had ruled only on admissibility of primary hearsay in statement waived defendant's argument on appeal that the statement was inadmissible as second level hearsay).