Brown v. Commonwealth

Senior Justice Poff

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal from an order of the Court of Appeals refusing a petition for appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Henrico County confirming a conviction of murder in the first degree. In three assignments of error, appellant James Martin Brown challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and the trial court’s rulings refusing two instructions proffered by the defense.

Responding to a telephone call placed by the defendant to emergency number 911, the police arrived at Brown’s townhouse about 10:25 p.m. on February 16, 1984.…