Perez v. Commonwealth

*651ANNUNZIATA, Judge.

A jury convicted Samudio-Perez of rape and sentenced him to serve six years in the penitentiary.1 On appeal, he contends the trial judge erred in denying his midtrial motion for a mistrial arising from a juror’s prior relationship with one of the detectives assigned to the case. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Background

On appeal, we view the facts in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the party prevailing below, together with all reasonable inferences fairly deducible therefrom. See Ortega v. Commonwealth, 31 Va.App. 779, 786, 525 S.E.2d 623, 627 (2000).…