Court Opinion

ID: 9897758
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-14 19:24:43.778248+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:02.187072
License: Public Domain

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
UNPUBLISHED

              Present: Judges Fulton, Friedman and Chaney

              JOSEPH MERLINO
                                                                             MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY
              v.     Record No. 1583-22-1                                    JUDGE FRANK K. FRIEDMAN
                                                                                 OCTOBER 3, 2023
              CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH

                             FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH
                                              Stephen C. Mahan, Judge

                              (Gregory K. Pugh, on brief), for appellant. Appellant submitting on
                              brief.

                              (Mark D. Stiles; Christopher Boynton; Christianna
                              Doughtery-Cunningham; Jennifer Peterson, Guardian ad litem for
                              the minor child; Office of the City Attorney; Petersen Law, PLC, on
                              brief), for appellee. Appellee and Guardian ad litem submitting on
                              brief.

                     Joseph Merlino (father) appeals the circuit court’s adjudication and dispositional orders

              finding that he had abused or neglected the child and transferring custody of the child to the

              maternal grandparents; he also appeals a permanent protective order entered on behalf of the child.

              On appeal, father argues that the circuit court erred in finding that the child was abused or neglected.

              Father also challenges the circuit court’s entry of the protective order as unnecessary and

              overreaching. We find no error and affirm the decision of the circuit court.

                                                        BACKGROUND

                     On appeal, “we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, in this

              case, the Department, and grant to it all reasonable inferences fairly deducible from the evidence.”

                     *
                         This opinion is not designated for publication. See Code § 17.1-413(A).
King v. King George Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 69 Va. App. 206, 210 (2018) (quoting C. Farrell v.

Warren Cnty. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 59 Va. App. 375, 420-21 (2012)).

       Father and Ellie Tran (mother) are the biological parents to the child, who was seven years

old at the time of the circuit court hearing. On February 14, 2017, mother arrived home to the

residence she shared with the child and maternal grandparents. As she was walking into the

residence, father stabbed mother with a syringe, injecting her with cyanide. The maternal

grandmother was in the home with the child when she heard mother scream. The maternal

grandmother saw father running from the scene and called 911. The child “witnessed . . . mother

jumping up and down after being injected with [c]yanide, heard . . . mother’s cries for help and

witnessed . . . mother suffering from the agonizing and horrific effects of poisoning while waiting

for the ambulance.” Mother was transported to the hospital where she later died.

       The Commonwealth charged father with first-degree murder. While awaiting trial, father

sent encoded messages to a number of recipients, asking for help to create an alibi and to intimidate

mother’s family. Following the trial, the jury convicted father of first-degree murder, and the trial

court sentenced father to life imprisonment.1 Father appealed, and this Court denied father’s

petition for appeal. See Merlino v. Commonwealth, No. 1968-18-1 (Va. Ct. App. Sept. 25, 2019).

       Following father’s conviction, the Virginia Beach Department of Human Services (the

Department) petitioned for a preliminary protective order against father based on abuse and neglect.

The Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (the JDR court) entered

adjudicatory and dispositional orders finding that father had abused or neglected the child and

transferring custody of the child to the maternal grandparents. The JDR court also entered a

permanent protective order on behalf of the child. Father appealed the JDR court’s orders.

       1
           Father’s sentencing order did not contain any prohibition from contacting the child.
                                                 -2-
        The parties appeared before the circuit court on father’s appeal. After considering the

parties’ evidence and argument, the circuit court found by a preponderance of the evidence that the

maternal grandparents and the child were in the residence when father murdered mother. The

circuit court found that the child witnessed father inject mother with cyanide, leading to mother’s

“agonizing death,” and that throughout father’s prosecution and incarceration, father

“communicated with others outside of the jail setting . . . in a concerted attempt to communicate

with and . . . attempt to intimidate the surviving members of the maternal family.” Based on

father’s “somewhat extraordinary methods and mechanisms for communication,” including sending

coded messages, the circuit court held there was evidence of “at least minimal lengths that [father

was] willing to try to go to in order to evade or subvert any surveillance or restrictions that

correctional authorities or law enforcement might otherwise attempt to impose upon him.” Based

on this evidence, the circuit court found that there was a “reasonable prospect that if the opportunity

[arose]” father would make “other attempts and efforts to subvert any type of surveillance or

restriction on [his] contact with the child.”

        The circuit court acknowledged that father was serving a life sentence, followed by a three-

year term of supervision, during which the probation officer could place restrictions on father’s

contact and communication with the child. The circuit court found, however, that the restrictions

were not guaranteed and it was possible that the Commonwealth could release father early.

        Following the hearing, the circuit court entered adjudicatory and dispositional orders finding

that father had abused or neglected the child and transferred custody of the child to the maternal

grandparents. The circuit court also entered a permanent protective order on behalf of the child.

Father appeals.

                                                  -3-
                                               ANALYSIS

        “On review, ‘[a] trial court is presumed to have thoroughly weighed all the evidence,

considered the statutory requirements, and made its determination based on the child’s best

interests.’” Castillo v. Loudoun Cnty. Dep’t of Fam. Servs., 68 Va. App. 547, 558 (2018) (quoting

Logan v. Fairfax Cnty. Dep’t of Hum. Dev., 13 Va. App. 123, 128 (1991)). “Where, as here, the

court hears the evidence ore tenus, its finding is entitled to great weight and will not be disturbed on

appeal unless plainly wrong or without evidence to support it.” Fauquier Cnty. Dep’t of Soc. Servs.

v. Ridgeway, 59 Va. App. 185, 190 (2011) (quoting Martin v. Pittsylvania Cnty. Dep’t of Soc.

Servs., 3 Va. App. 15, 20 (1986)).

                                          I. Abuse and Neglect

        Father first challenges the circuit court’s finding of abuse and neglect. Father states that

at the time of mother’s death, the child resided with the maternal grandparents, and continues to

do so, and that the child “is loved” and “is safe.” Father contends that, as such, there is “no

reason to determine that [the child] meets the definition of an abused or neglected child.” Father

also argues that “[m]ere incarceration of a parent does not render the child automatically abused

or neglected.”2

        Code § 16.1-228(1) defines an abused or neglected child as any child “[w]hose parents . . .

create[] or inflict[], threaten[] to create or inflict, or allow[] to be created or inflicted upon such child

a physical or mental injury by other than accidental means, or create[] a substantial risk of death,

disfigurement or impairment of bodily or mental functions.” “[T]he statutory definitions of an

abused or neglected child do not require proof of actual harm or impairment having been

        2
          Father also alleges for the first time on appeal that there is no evidence that father ever
“physically abused or neglected the child.” Rule 5A:18 bars our consideration of father’s
argument. Although there are exceptions to Rule 5A:18, father does not invoke them, and we
will not do so sua sponte. Edwards v. Commonwealth, 41 Va. App. 752, 761 (2003) (en banc).
                                                  -4-
experienced by the child.” D. Farrell v. Warren Cnty. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 59 Va. App. 342, 364

(2012) (quoting Jenkins v. Winchester Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 12 Va. App. 1178, 1183 (1991)). “[T]he

Code contemplates intervention . . . where ‘the child would be subjected to an imminent threat to

life or health to the extent that severe or irreversible injury would be likely to result if the child were

returned to or left in the custody of his parent . . . .’” Id. (quoting Jenkins, 12 Va. App. at 1183).

Proof by a preponderance of the evidence is the appropriate standard for abuse and neglect cases.

See Cumbo v. Dickenson Cnty. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 62 Va. App. 124, 130 (2013).

        Father does not dispute the circuit court’s holding that the child was present when father

murdered mother and the child witnessed mother’s “agonizing death.” Father also does not

challenge the circuit court’s conclusion that father’s “numerous methods and mechanisms” of

sending coded messages in order to avoid prosecution, obstruct witnesses, and subvert the

Department of Corrections’ restrictions was indicative of father’s on-going threat to the child.

Moreover, contrary to father’s argument, the circuit court did not base its finding on father’s

incarceration, but rather on father’s underlying violent and threatening actions. Neither the murder

of the child’s mother in front of the child, nor the subsequent efforts to harass and intimidate

mother’s family—the child’s caregivers—suggest father values the child’s well-being or safety.

Based on the totality of the record, the circuit court did not err in finding that the child was abused

or neglected.

                                          II. Protective Order

        Father also challenges the circuit court’s imposition of a protective order on behalf of the

child. Father alleges that the protective order was unnecessary and overreaching because the

maternal grandparents were not required to permit contact between father and the child. Father

asserts that the Commonwealth could have, but did not, request a no-contact order between

father and the child during the criminal trial; therefore, he claims that it is not necessary. Finally,

                                                   -5-
father asserts that because he is serving a life sentence, a protective order is unnecessary as the

Department of Corrections has avenues to prohibit contact between father and the child.3

       The record supports the circuit court’s judgment that a protective order restricting father’s

contact with the child was appropriate to protect the child’s welfare. Once a child is found to be

abused or neglected, Code § 16.1-278.2 provides several options for a court “to protect the

welfare of the child,” including prohibiting or limiting contact “as the court deems appropriate

between the child and his parent . . . whose presence tends to endanger the child’s life, health or

normal development.” Code § 16.1-278.2(A)(3). “In matters of a child’s welfare, [circuit]

courts are vested with broad discretion in making the decisions necessary to guard and to foster a

child’s best interests.” Thach v. Arlington Cnty. Dep’t of Human Servs., 63 Va. App. 157, 168

(2014) (quoting Logan, 13 Va. App. at 128). “This Court presumes that the circuit court

‘thoroughly weighed all the evidence, considered the statutory requirements, and made its

determination based on the child’s best interests.’” Id. (quoting Logan, 13 Va. App. at 128).

       Here, father does not dispute the circuit court holding that father’s past use of coded

messages demonstrated his willingness to evade restrictions the correctional authorities may

place on his communication with the child. Moreover, although father was serving a life

sentence, father does not deny the possibility the Commonwealth could release father early and

that any restrictions imposed upon his release were not guaranteed. Finally, father’s reliance on

the lack of a no-contact order from the criminal trial as evidence that a protective order is

unnecessary is not persuasive, as the subject proceeding was properly before the circuit court in a

       3
         Father also contends that the Department could have sought to terminate his parental
rights under Code § 16.1-283(E). As the Department points out, however, Code § 16.1-283(E)
applies to the “residual parental rights of a parent or parents of a child who is in the custody of a
local board or licensed child-placing agency.” This does not apply to the child, who has been in
the maternal grandparents’ custody since mother’s death.
                                                 -6-
separate and distinct proceeding brought on behalf of the child. Considering the totality of the

record, the circuit court did not err in imposing a protective order against father.

                                          CONCLUSION

       For the foregoing reasons, the circuit court’s ruling is affirmed.

                                                                                         Affirmed.

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