Terrance Delvon Lindsey v. Commonwealth of Virginia

CourtCourt of Appeals of Virginia
DecidedOctober 3, 2023
Docket0987221
StatusUnpublished

This text of Terrance Delvon Lindsey v. Commonwealth of Virginia (Terrance Delvon Lindsey v. Commonwealth of Virginia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Terrance Delvon Lindsey v. Commonwealth of Virginia, (Va. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA

Present: Judges AtLee, Causey and Callins UNPUBLISHED

Argued at Norfolk, Virginia

TERRANCE DELVON LINDSEY MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY v. Record No. 0987-22-1 JUDGE DOMINIQUE A. CALLINS OCTOBER 3, 2023 COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF NORFOLK David W. Lannetti, Judge

J. Barry McCracken, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.

Tanner M. Russo, Assistant Attorney General (Jason S. Miyares, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

A jury convicted Terrance Delvon Lindsey of unlawful wounding. On appeal from that

conviction, he challenges the trial court’s admission of photographs depicting the victim’s injuries at

the hospital and the trial court’s denial of his motion to strike the evidence. For the following

reasons, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

BACKGROUND1

On November 22, 2019, Old Dominion University (ODU) Officer Jasmine Rogers was

patrolling the ODU campus in a marked police vehicle when she observed a loud group of people

causing a “commotion” outside a 7-Eleven convenience store. Officer Rogers and her partner

* This opinion is not designated for publication. See Code § 17.1-413(A). 1 We recite the facts “in the ‘light most favorable’ to the Commonwealth, the prevailing party in the trial court.” Hammer v. Commonwealth, 74 Va. App. 225, 231 (2022) (quoting Commonwealth v. Cady, 300 Va. 325, 329 (2021)). Doing so requires us to “discard the evidence of the accused in conflict with that of the Commonwealth, and regard as true all the credible evidence favorable to the Commonwealth and all fair inferences to be drawn therefrom.” Cady, 300 Va. at 329 (quoting Commonwealth v. Perkins, 295 Va. 323, 324 (2018)). parked behind the parking spaces fronting the store and investigated. Some of the individuals

outside the store referred to “fighting” and, after noticing an “obviously irate” male pacing in the

parking spaces outside the store entrance, Officer Rogers summoned him toward her patrol car.

Officer Rogers’s partner, dressed in uniform, approached the lighted store entrance and spoke to the

individuals gathered outside the door.

Officer Rogers, also dressed in uniform, questioned the “irate” male, Nicholas Cardona.

She noted that Cardona was visibly “upset,” and, as he spoke with Officer Rogers, he gestured with

his hands, which were empty, and lifted his shirt. He appeared to be unarmed. Cardona’s wife and

mother were nearby. His mother was “yelling” as she ran back and forth between Officer Rogers

and her partner.

As Officer Rogers questioned Cardona, Lindsey exited the front entrance of the 7-Eleven.

Turned at an angle, his back toward the parking lot, Lindsey walked backward slowly on the

storefront sidewalk in the direction of Cardona, Officer Rogers, and Officer Rogers’s patrol car.

While Cardona’s back was turned to the store to address Officer Rogers, Lindsey approached from

behind, lifted his arm above his head, and struck Cardona in the face with a wine bottle, knocking

him to the ground.

Officer Rogers immediately arrested Lindsey. At trial, the jury watched footage of the

incident taken from Officer Rogers’s body-worn camera. After viewing the footage, Officer Rogers

reiterated her observation that Cardona had nothing in his hands when Lindsey approached and

struck him with the bottle.

ODU Detective Christopher Jones, who was working on November 22, 2019, traveled to a

Norfolk hospital to assist Officer Rogers with interviewing Cardona and his wife. Detective Jones

testified that, when he arrived at the hospital, Cardona had undergone “some procedures” and was

still “groggy.” Detective Jones observed that Cardona’s “eye, nose area was swollen and blue.”

-2- Detective Jones photographed Cardona’s face when he “first made contact with him . . . in the

hospital.” Over Lindsey’s objection, the trial court admitted the photographs. They depicted a deep

cut above Cardona’s right eye, both before and after it was sutured. The photographs also showed

bruising around Cardona’s right eye, blood on his face, and an oxygen tube in his nose.

Later, when Officer Rogers reviewed surveillance footage from the 7-Eleven store, the

footage showed Cardona visiting the store twice before the incident with Lindsey on the evening of

November 22, 2019. Although the Commonwealth did not introduce the footage at trial, Officer

Rogers recalled seeing that, during the first visit, Cardona’s wife approached the store entrance and

Lindsey was “trying to open the door for her.” Cardona’s wife did not enter the store; instead, she

left the scene with Cardona. Later, Cardona returned in a van with his wife and his mother, one of

whom was brandishing a firearm.

Lindsey testified on his own behalf. He maintained that Cardona’s “girlfriend” entered, then

exited, the store. When she exited, “[s]omebody in the crowd across” from the store called her a

“B-I-T-C-H.” Lindsey stated that Cardona exited the van and accused Lindsey of swearing at his

girlfriend. An altercation ensued, and, after bystanders separated the two men, Cardona left the

scene. Cardona returned to the 7-Eleven, his third visit that evening, and exited his van with a gun.

According to Lindsey, Cardona threatened to kill the people gathered outside the store. Lindsey

offered a still photograph of Cardona from the store surveillance footage, which he claimed depicted

Cardona holding a firearm outside the store entrance. Lindsey testified that Cardona’s threat caused

the group to scatter, and Lindsey to flee inside the store.

Lindsey maintained that he asked the store clerk for assistance in calling the police, but the

store clerk declined. “Ten to fifteen seconds” passed before Lindsey seized a wine bottle and

returned outside. Lindsey testified that he had “no idea” why he took the bottle. Once outside,

Lindsey stood next to a trash can and watched Cardona speaking with someone; he denied being

-3- aware that the individual was a police officer. Lindsey claimed that he was focused on whether

Cardona had a gun in his hands. Less than 30 seconds after exiting the store, Lindsey “walk[ed]

backwards” toward Cardona and struck him in the face with the wine bottle. Lindsey claimed that

he hit Cardona because “[his] state of mind was still into [Cardona] putting [Lindsey] in danger.”

After watching the footage from Officer Rogers’s camera, Lindsey agreed that Cardona was not

armed. Lindsey admitted that he was a convicted felon.

Lindsey moved to strike the evidence at the close of the Commonwealth’s evidence and

again after the close of the defense’s evidence. The trial court denied both motions. The jury

ultimately convicted Lindsey of unlawful wounding. Lindsey appeals.

ANALYSIS

I. Admission of Photographs

Lindsey contends that the trial court erred by admitting the photographs of Cardona’s

injuries at the hospital because the Commonwealth offered no foundation to establish that the

depicted injuries resulted from Lindsey striking him with the bottle; therefore, the images were

“irrelevant.” He stresses that Detective Jones did not witness Lindsey’s assault on Cardona and no

evidence established the nature of Cardona’s injuries at the 7-Eleven store. Absent “a satisfactory

nexus” between his injuries and the assault, including “the amount of time elapsed” between the

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