Doane v. Commonwealth

Dallas Nathaniel Doane (Doane or defendant), who waived trial by jury, was tried and convicted by the trial court of second degree murder. We granted defendant a writ of error to the order sentencing him to a term of ten years in the penitentiary on this conviction.

While his assignments of error raise several issues, in deciding this appeal we reach only the defendant’s claim that the trial court erred in applying the felony-murder rule of Code § 18.2-33 1 to the facts of his case.

Those facts, stated in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, reveal that the defendant stole a 1973 Ford…