Smith v. Commonwealth

William Ray Smith was convicted by a jury of first degree murder and sentenced by the trial court to a term of twenty-five years in the *698state penitentiary. The sole question on appeal is whether there was sufficient evidence of premeditation, an essential element of first degree murder.

About 7 p.m. on Sunday, August 28, 1977, Patricia Dale McGlothlin, age twenty, left home to go to an ice cream parlor in Richlands, Virginia, to obtain drinks for herself and her mother, Shirley McGlothlin. She was driving her mother’s 1974 maroon Chevrolet Impala. When Patricia did not return by 8 p.m., Mrs.…