Opinion
Record No. 0508-91-1
December 22, 1992
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF CHESAPEAKE, JAMES C. GODWIN, JUDGE.
Robert E. Kowalsky, Jr., for appellant.
Marla Lynn Graff, Assistant Attorney General (Mary Sue Terry, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.
Present: Judges Baker, Barrow and Bray.
Argued at Norfolk, Virginia.
Pursuant to Code § 17-116.010 this opinion is not designated publication.
Rodney Dean Dyer (defendant) was convicted on two counts of "peeping" into an occupied dwelling in violation of Code § 18.2-130. On appeal, defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support these convictions. We disagree and affirm the decision of the trial court.
The parties are fully conversant with the record and this memorandum opinion recites only those facts necessary to a disposition of the issue before the Court.
Under familiar principles of appellate review, we examine the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, granting to it all reasonable inferences fairly deducible therefrom. Martin v. Commonwealth, 4 Va. App. 438, 443, 358 S.E.2d 415, 418 (1987). The judgment of the trial court, sitting without a jury, is entitled to the same weight as a jury verdict and will be disturbed only if plainly wrong or without evidence to support it. Id.
The evidence, which related to both counts, disclosed that Donna Allen (Allen) "turned [her] back porch light on," as she "started to close the blinds" on her "back door," and observed defendant approximately "four feet" from "the window on the door." Allen testified that defendant "was backing up," that he "knew that [she] saw him . . . no doubt about it" and immediately "left." The incident occurred at "about 5:15, 5:30" p.m. on December 5, 1989, and Allen recalled that it was "pretty dark out."
Within an hour thereafter, Crystal Crebar (Crebar), Allen's neighbor, similarly discovered defendant "on [her] porch," approximately "two feet" "from the window." He was clothed in "just a shirt," without "anything else on." When Crebar "turned the light on" and "saw [defendant] outside," he "fled."
Intending to alert a neighbor, Crebar "knocked on the door" of a nearby residence and was "shocked and . . . stunned" when defendant "answered the door in a towel." Crebar, realizing that she had selected "the wrong house," "left" and advised Allen that she had "found him." To confirm that "this is him," Allen also "knocked on [defendant's] door," and he again "came to the door . . . in a towel." Both women identified defendant in open court.
Based upon our review of the record, we find that the evidence, accorded its reasonable and proper inferences, was clearly sufficient to support the convictions, and the decision of the trial court is affirmed.
Affirmed.