Davis v. Commonwealth

Opinion

BARROW, J.

In this criminal appeal, we consider the meaning of

the phrase “temporarily unoccupied” contained in Code § 18.2-77 (arson). We hold that a dwelling referred to in that section as “temporarily unoccupied” is one that is currently uninhabited, not one from which its occupants are merely absent at the time it is burned. Thus, when the defendant burned the house in which he and others lived, he was guilty of a Class 2 felony, rather than a Class 3 felony, even though no one was in the house at the time. See Code § 18.2-77.1

The defendant and two sub-tenants, a woman and her…