| Publication Date: | 2025 |
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“[This book provides] the most comprehensive explanation of Virginia Criminal Procedure currently available. Defending Criminal Cases in Virginia not only provides detailed explanations of procedures but has drawn motion samples from some of the best criminal defense attorneys around the state.” – Corinne J. Magee, co-editor
“No other practice manual has the focus, emphasis, and commitment to anticipating the needs of criminal defense attorneys who sometimes require fast answers, current information, and useful recommendations.” – David L. Heilberg, co-editor
Virginia’s criminal justice system has undergone many changes since the last edition of Defending Criminal Cases was published. In addition to becoming the first Southern state to do away with the death penalty, Virginia has also expanded the jurisdiction of the Virginia Court of Appeals to allow direct appeals in all criminal cases. Juries no longer sentence the accused unless this has been requested by a defense motion filed at least 30 days prior to trial. New statutes now allow the defense several avenues to introduce mental health evidence, displacing the long-standing common law rule that prohibited this unless the defendant pled not guilty by reason of insanity. The 2025 edition includes a new chapter that addresses how to raise and successfully defend when the defendant’s mental health is at issue. Juveniles charged with murder or aggravated malicious wounding who have been the victims of sexual assault or trafficking by their alleged victims are now accorded treatment and services in the juvenile system because they are also viewed as victims. Many statutory changes were also made in the area of deferred sentencing as well as the removal of the rebuttable presumptions against bond that were formerly contained in the Virginia Code.
Defending Criminal Cases in Virginia is the only Virginia criminal practice text written by and for practicing criminal defense attorneys. The book is a hands-on, start-to-finish tool for beginning and experienced criminal defense lawyers and provides coverage of the entire process of representing criminal defendants from arrest through sentencing and appeal. Significant portions of the book are devoted to tactics and techniques, and the practical advice is complemented by a large number of editable electronic forms.
Corinne J. Magee, The Magee Law Firm, PLLC, McLean.
Corinne J. Magee, co-editor of this book and author of Chapters 1, 6, and 7, is a principal at The Magee Law Firm in McLean. Ms. Magee graduated with honors from the National Law Center at the George Washington University in 1979. Before starting The Magee Law Firm with her husband in 2003, she worked as a staff attorney for the Rhode Island Supreme Court, as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Fairfax County, and as a solo practitioner, focusing on criminal defense.
Ms. Magee is an active member of the Fairfax County Bar Association, where she previously chaired the Criminal Practice Section for 12 years. She is a previous board member and past-president of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (VACDL), a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), and a member of the Criminal Practice Section of The Virginia Bar Association. She regularly teaches continuing legal education courses for the Fairfax Bar Association, VACDL, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (VTLA), Virginia CLE, and the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, as well as a number of other bar associations and organizations. In 2007, Ms. Magee was recognized as one of Virginia’s Leaders in the Law for her work in challenging the abusive driver civil remedial fees in the courts. In 2019, she was recognized as one of Virginia’s Influential Women of Law, and, in 2022, she received the B. Leigh Drewry Jr. Defender of Justice Award.
Ms. Magee has authored an article, “When Juries Punish Too Much; Virginia’s Sentencing System Scares Criminal Defendants Away From Trial,” 27 Legal Times 27 (March 22, 2004), and has written the Fairfax Criminal Practice Manual (2006), which is distributed by the Fairfax Bar Association.
David L. Heilberg, Attorney at Law, Charlottesville.
David L. Heilberg, co-editor of this book and author of Chapter 8, is within his fifth decade of experience frequently handling bench and jury trials. He received his B.A. from Union College (NY) in 1975 and his J.D. from Washington & Lee University in 1979, where he has taught trial advocacy as adjunct faculty. He started his private law practice in Charlottesville in 1982 after prosecuting in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County for three years. Mr. Heilberg was the 2011 President of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and regularly represents clients throughout Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Starting in 2011, Mr. Heilberg has been annually designated as a “Super Lawyer” in Virginia in the field of criminal defense; he is also AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell/Lawyers.com and rated 10.0 by Avvo. His practice areas include adult and juvenile (Virginia and federal trials and appeals) criminal, capital murder, driving under the influence, traffic, Title IX cases at UVA, and plaintiff’s personal injury cases. He is regularly invited to deliver presentations on criminal law topics before groups of fellow professionals as well as college and law school students.
Timothy C. Carwile, Wharton Aldhizer & Weaver, PLC, Waynesboro.
Timothy C. Carwile, co-editor of this book and author of Chapters 2 and 9, lives and practices law in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and is of counsel with Wharton Aldhizer & Weaver, PLC, in Waynesboro. He holds a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the T.C. Williams School of Law of the University of Richmond. Mr. Carwile was a prosecutor for eight years in Waynesboro before concentrating on criminal defense work. He is a former president of the Augusta County-Staunton-Waynesboro Bar Association and a former member of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Committee appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court, and served the Virginia State Bar as chair of its Eighth District Ethics Committee. He is currently a Commissioner in the Augusta County Circuit Court and a Substitute District Court Judge. He has been recognized by a Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating as an “AV Preeminent” attorney.
Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D., Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, Richmond.
Jeffrey Aaron, Ph.D., co-author of Chapter 11, is a clinical and forensic psychologist. Currently the Juvenile Justice and Behavioral Health Program Manager for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, he previously spent almost 18 years at the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents (CCCA), Virginia’s only public psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents, in clinical roles and as the hospital’s director. Dr. Aaron is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia Medical School and associate faculty at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy. Dr. Aaron has published in the areas of coping with stress, trauma, and forensic psychological evaluation, provided invited testimony before the Virginia House and Senate, and presented across the country on topics including forensic mental health evaluation, adolescent development and legal decision-making, coping with traumatic loss, and clinical assessment of children and adolescents. He also has a private practice in which he conducts forensic psychological evaluations of adolescents and adults, and he has served as an expert witness in juvenile and circuit courts across Virginia. Areas of forensic specialization include evaluation of confessions, mitigation, posttraumatic stress, and juvenile justice. He is actively involved in training public safety officers to have better understanding of and interactions with youth.
Curtis W. Baranyk, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney, Stafford County.
Curtis W. Baranyk, co-author of Chapter 5, received his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from East Carolina University in 2006. He later obtained his master’s degree in 2011 from George Mason University and his law degree from the University of Baltimore in 2012. After graduating from law school, Mr. Baranyk joined the Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney and member of several specialized units before joining the Stafford County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in 2023. He has prosecuted a variety of offenses since 2012, ranging from narcotics and gang-related charges to possession of child pornography, murder, abduction, and DWI manslaughter.
Matthew Greene, Sris, PC, Fairfax.
Matthew Greene, co-author of Chapter 12, is of counsel to the Law Offices of Sris, PC. He focuses his practice in Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia, representing numerous clients in state and federal courts in both criminal and traffic matters. Mr. Green’s criminal defense portfolio includes defending his clients who are facing murder charges as well as sexual offense charges. He earned his law degree from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in 1994, then worked as a judicial clerk for the Honorable John A. Terry of the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Hon. William E. Jarvis, Prince William General District Court, Manassas.
Hon. William E. Jarvis, author of Chapter 3, is a presiding judge for the Prince William General District Court. He is an adjunct professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law. At the request of the Virginia Supreme Court, Judge Jarvis also teaches new and substitute judges Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure Law. He served on the Board of Directors for the Criminal Law section of the Virginia State Bar and currently serves on the Judicial Education Committee and the Access to Justice Commission’s subcommittee on unrepresented litigants.
Judge Jarvis began his legal career as a prosecutor in Pittsylvania County from 1992 to 1998 and also was a prosecutor in Marion County, Florida, from 1998 to 2002. Upon his return to Virginia in 2002, he prosecuted in Prince William County from 2002 until 2012 when he took the General District Court Bench in Prince William County on November 1, 2012. He grew up attending public schools in Norfolk. He graduated from Old Dominion University in 1985 with a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Criminal Justice. After doing graduate work at the University of Virginia, he attended George Mason University School of Law, graduating in 1991.
Joseph King, King Campbell Poretz Mitchell, PLLC, Alexandria.
Joseph King, co-author of Chapter 12, is a partner with the firm King Campbell Poretz Mitchell, PLLC, in Alexandria. Mr. King’s criminal defense portfolio includes defending murder cases as well as defending federal white collar matters, federal and state drug offenses, and DUI/DWI allegations. His work in criminal defense has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America, Virginia and Washington, DC Super Lawyers, and top regional publications The Washingtonian and Northern Virginia Magazine. In 2021 and 2022, Virginia Super Lawyers ranked Mr. King as one of the top 100 lawyers in Virginia. Before establishing his private legal practice in 2008, Mr. King worked as an attorney at the Alexandria Office of the Public Defender (2004-2008), which has a number of alumni recognized among the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area’s top trial lawyers. During his time as a public defender, Mr. King diligently worked on behalf of his indigent clients and attended the respected Trial Practice Institute at the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia. Mr. King received his J.D., cum laude, from The University of Michigan Law School in 2003. He earned a master’s degree in History from George Mason University in 1996 and a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Mary Washington College in 1992.
Mikhail “Misha” Lopez, Lee Lopez Law PLLC, Arlington.
Mikhail “Misha” Lopez, author of Chapter 4, is a partner at the firm of Lee Lopez Law PLLC in Arlington, where he focuses only on criminal defense and family law issues. Prior to opening Lee Lopez Law PLLC, Mr. Lopez worked at Greenspun Shapiro PC in Fairfax for more than seven years. Mr. Lopez has over 12 years of experience handling bench and jury trials throughout the Northern Virginia area. He received his B.A. from the College of William and Mary in 2007 and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 2011. He started practicing law in Fairfax in 2012 after passing the California and Virginia bar exams. Mr. Lopez was the 2016-2017 President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Virginia. He regularly represents clients throughout Fairfax County and City, Prince William County, Loudoun County, Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, and the appellate Courts of Virginia. Starting in 2016, Mr. Lopez has been annually designated as a Virginia Rising Star by Super Lawyers. His practice areas include all levels state criminal litigation, with a particular focus on domestic violence and physical assaults, as well as family law matters such as support, custody, divorce, and protective order litigation.
Bradley Marshall, Vanderpool, Frostick & Nishanian, PC, Manassas.
Bradley Marshall, co-author of Chapter 5, is a shareholder at Vanderpool, Frostick & Nishanian, PC, in Manassas, where he leads the firm’s white collar and criminal defense section, is co-lead for their investigations section, and practices in the municipal law and civil litigation sections. Prior to that, he served as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Prince William County for over a decade. Mr. Marshall received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and his juris doctorate degree from Michigan State University. He is appointed to the Prince William County Community Services Board, chairs the PWC Community Criminal Justice Board, and was appointed by the Governor to the Criminal Justice Services Board. He also previously chaired the Virginia State Bar’s Bench-Bar Relations Committee and was a member of the VSB Carrico Professionalism Course faculty. Mr. Marshall was in the inaugural class of Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s “Up & Coming Lawyers” in 2016, received the 2017 Prince William County Bar Association Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award, has been listed in the Virginia Business magazine Legal Elite since 2021, Northern Virginia Magazine’s Top Lawyers since 2022, was named a “leader in the Law” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly in 2024, and has consistently received the highest possible rating in legal ability and ethics, AV Preeminent, by Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Marshall is on the legal faculty at the PWC Public Safety Academy, has lectured at Northern Virginia Community College as well as George Mason University, and regularly teaches continuing legal education courses on topics such as Constitutional Law, Mental Health Ethics, Specialty Dockets, Immigration Law, and Criminal Street Gang Laws.
Annette Miller, Virginia Beach Public Defender’s Office, Virginia Beach.
Annette Miller, co-author of Chapter 11, is a Senior Trial Attorney with the City of Virginia Beach. She has been a public defender from 1995 to the present and specializes in those individuals who suffer from serious mental illnesses. Her undergraduate degree is from Virginia Tech, with a double major in English and Political Science (1979-1983). She has a master’s degree in English from Syracuse University and taught English at Syracuse while completing her degree requirements (1983-1985). Her law degree is from the University of Richmond (1988). She was the first law clerk for the Virginia Beach Circuit Court judges (1989-1991).
Ms. Miller worked for Parker Pollard & Brown from 1991-1995, specializing in workers’ compensation and personal injury. She was awarded a Virginia Beach Human Rights Award for mental health education and advocacy in 2000. She was published in the American Bar Association’s Criminal Litigation magazine, Winter 2010, Volume 10, Number 2. The article is entitled “The Post-Adjudication ‘Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity’ Process in the State of Virginia.”
Ms. Miller has lectured extensively in the field including but not limited to a Virginia State Bar CLE-approved seminar for her office entitled “Handling Criminal Cases and the Mentally Ill, A Guide for Attorneys, Clients and Their Families”; the Virginia State Bar’s 42nd Annual Criminal Law Seminar; the 2008 Regional Judge’s Conference; a 2012 Virginia Beach Bar Association’s Seminar entitled “Representing a Client with Mental Health Issues”; the Indigent Defense Commission’s Late Day Lecture Series on Mental Health Ethics (2016); Virginia CLE Mental Health Ethics 101 in the Criminal Justice System (2017); Virginia CLE Ethical Representation of Mentally Ill Defendants in Criminal Cases (2021); and Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Fall 2021 (Live) lecture on mental health ethics in the “Surf’s Up: New Tools and Techniques for Riding the Wave of Criminal Justice Reform” seminar.
Stephen A. Mutnick, Winslow, McCurry, & MacCormac, PLLC, Midlothian.
Stephen A. Mutnick, author of Chapter 10, practices primarily in the areas of criminal and traffic defense and also acts as a guardian ad litem. Mr. Mutnick regularly defends those accused of crimes, ranging from speeding to murder, in the counties of Chesterfield, Henrico, and Hanover, and in the City of Richmond and other jurisdictions in central Virginia. He is certified as court-appointed counsel for both adults and juveniles in misdemeanor and felony cases and as a guardian ad litem for juveniles. He also regularly appears as counsel and as guardian ad litem for juveniles in delinquency cases. Mr. Mutnick serves as a substitute judge for the 14th Judicial District.
Mr. Mutnick has been a speaker for Virginia CLE since 2013 and has lectured in the areas of the DUI defense, serious traffic offenses, and juvenile criminal law. In 2016, Mr. Mutnick created and was lead faculty in the seminar Representing the Criminal Juvenile Defendant: Navigating the Juvenile Justice System. He also has taught at the Commonwealth Attorney’s Services Council Spring Institute, the Virginia State Police Academy, and the Henrico Police Academy.
During the General Assembly session, Mr. Mutnick serves as Counsel to the House of Delegates’ Courts of Justice Committee, where he advises the members of the General Assembly on important issues in criminal law. In 2016, he was appointed to a two-year term as a member of the Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Community Criminal Justice Board, in which capacity he assists county leaders in developing criminal justice policy. Mr. Mutnick serves as a defense representative on the Henrico County Addiction Task Force and as a defense attorney for the Henrico County Mental Health Diversion and Behavioral Health Dockets.
Mr. Mutnick joined the firm of Winslow & McCurry in 2013 after serving as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for approximately six years. He was an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Loudoun County for two years, before serving as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Henrico County until 2013.
Born and raised in Burke, Virginia, Mr. Mutnick attended the College of William and Mary with a major in Public Policy. After college, he attended the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond, where he was awarded the trial advocacy award upon graduation from the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Mutnick lives with his wife and two sons in Henrico.
Jacqueline M. Reiner, Jacqueline M. Reiner, PLLC, Richmond.
Jacqueline M. Reiner, author of Chapter 13, has more than 20 years of experience litigating bench and jury trials in the state and federal courts across Virginia. Ms. Reiner graduated from the University of Richmond School of Law where she received the VTLA Student Trial Advocacy Award. Ms. Reiner has also taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor. Ms. Reiner began her career as a prosecutor for the City of Richmond and currently serves the Commonwealth of Virginia as a substitute judge. She also serves on the Virginia State Bar’s Board of Governors of the Criminal Law Section and on the faculty of the Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course. Ms. Reiner is licensed to practice in all state courts in both Virginia and New York, in addition to the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the Federal Claims Court. Ms. Reiner’s current practice focuses on criminal defense (including defending state and federal capital murders; murders, robberies, assaults, and other violent crimes; and narcotics and firearm offenses) as well as the defense of convicted sex offenders in sexually violent predator civil commitment proceedings. Ms. Reiner also devotes a significant portion of her practice to divorce, custody, and visitation litigation.
Elwood Earl “Sandy” Sanders, Jr., Lantagne Legal Printing,
Richmond.
Elwood Earl “Sandy” Sanders, Jr., author of Chapter 14, is a senior appellate consultant at Lantagne Legal Printing in Richmond. He received his B.A. from Wright State University in 1980 and his J.D. from the University of Alabama in 1983. He was in private law practice in Woodbridge in 1985, primarily conducting trials and appeals, many of which were for indigent criminal defendants. In 1996, he was hired by the Public Defender (now Indigent Defense) Commission to be first the Director, Capital and Appellate Services, and later Virginia’s first Appellate Defender, where he served until 2000. Mr. Sanders then became an associate with the Framme Law Firm, advising Pre-Paid (now LegalShield) members with a myriad of matters and assisted Larry Framme in the successful defense at the Supreme Court of Virginia of a civil verdict of over a million dollars. In 2007 he came to Lantagne Legal Printing.
Mr. Sanders is author or co-author of ten law review/journal articles and several practice-oriented articles and has been an adjunct instructor at several colleges, universities, and law schools, including Virginia Commonwealth University, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at the University of Richmond, the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond, and Trevecca Nazarene University (online). He presently teaches non-profit law primarily for pastors and Salvation Army officers online at Nazarene Bible College. Mr. Sanders also conducts approved continuing legal education on state appellate procedure and ethics in state appeals for numerous local and specialty bar associations and law firms throughout the Commonwealth. He was also instrumental in bringing the Olympic sport of curling to the Commonwealth, as a founder and first president of the Curling Club of Virginia.
Sean A. Sherlock, King Campbell Poretz Mitchell, PLLC, Alexandria.
Sean A. Sherlock, co-author of Chapter 12, is a partner with the firm King Campbell Poretz Mitchell, PLLC, in Alexandria. Mr. Sherlock’s practice focuses on criminal defense in state and federal courts, family law, and civil litigation. Before entering private practice in 2018, Mr. Sherlock served for over five years as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Alexandria, where he prosecuted serious and high-profile cases. Mr. Sherlock is a faculty member of the Virginia State Bar’s Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course and has twice been named to the Pro Bono Service Honor Roll by the Virginia Access to Justice Commission. He has taught many CLEs on various criminal-law topics at both local and state-wide conferences. Mr. Sherlock earned his J.D., cum laude, from American University’s Washington College of Law in 2011, and earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Penn State University in 2007.
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