Commonwealth of Virginia v. Quincy Eugeme Moore

Halifax, Virginia, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with voluntary manslaughter[3] and leaving the scene of an accident involving death or serious bodily injury.

In 2020, Quincy Moore and Donald Jeffreys had a verbal and physical altercation at a neighborhood gathering. Party attendees separated them, and Jeffreys walked away still making verbal threats. Although Jeffreys was approximately 500 feet away from the party, Moore, "still angry, jumped" into his girlfriend's car and sped down the street toward Jeffreys, who was walking "in or near the center of the street." Moore struck Jeffreys at "36 miles per hour" and fled after making two U-turns to return to the site of impact. Moore did not report the event to the police and remained at large for two days. Jeffreys died at the scene from blunt force injuries to his head and neck.

Police found the car at Moore's girlfriend's house with the windshield shattered and blood-stained on the driver side. The medical examiner and forensic analysis confirmed that the glass shards extracted from Jeffreys' head and chest matched the windshield glass and that the blood on the car was a DNA match to Jeffreys. Moore was charged with second-degree murder and felony leaving the scene of an accident involving death or serious bodily injury, colloquially known as hit and run.

Moore moved to dismiss or for the Commonwealth to elect which of the charges it would proceed on, arguing that the proof of an element required for one offense "necessarily require[d] proof of an opposite element in the other offense." Specifically, he argued that for the Commonwealth to prevail on a second-degree murder offense, it must prove malice and intentionality.[6] But, he argued, the hit and run statute requires a driver involved in an accident in which a person is killed to stop and render aid and report the event to law enforcement. In a pre-trial hearing on his motion and the Commonwealth's motion to amend the jury instruction on hit and run, Moore argued that because the statute does not define "accident," its ordinary meaning is an event that "is not planned or intended and causes damage or injury." Thus, the unintentional nature of a hit and run is contrary to the intent required for second-degree murder, so the trial court should dismiss both indictments, or require the Commonwealth to elect which indictment it would take to trial.

Guilty. Sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Affirmed