Spear v. Commonwealth

James Spear, defendant, was convicted by a jury of murder in the second degree and his punishment was fixed at twenty years in the penitentiary. He was sentenced in accordance with the jury’s verdict and is here on a writ of error.

The evidence shows that late in the afternoon of March 23, 1971, St. Louis Farley, William Harris and the defendant purchased a fifth of whiskey from an ABC store. They met Daniel White in his apartment in Blackstone, Virginia, and all four of them commenced drinking. They finished the fifth and defendant, White and one of the other men left the apartment to obtain…