Commonwealth v. Leal

SENIOR JUSTICE COMPTON

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Defendant Jorge Manuel Leal was indicted in the Circuit Court of the City of Newport News for maiming by mob and causing bodily injury to one John Binns in violation of Code § 18.2-41. The statute provides that any person “composing a mob which shall maliciously or unlawfully ... cut or wound any person, or by any means cause him bodily injury with intent to maim, disable, disfigure or kill him, shall be guilty of a Class 3 felony.”

During a trial by jury, the circuit court refused an instruction tendered by the defendant which would…