Commonwealth of Virginia, Appellant v. Marquez Rah-Shaun Perkins, Appellee.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Virginia reversed the Court of Appeals' sufficiency-based reversal of Perkins's convictions for malicious wounding and use of a firearm during the commission of a malicious wounding, holding that a rational factfinder could infer a malicious intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill from Perkins's unprovoked strike to the back of the defenseless victim's head with a firearm during a robbery, even though a co-actor simultaneously struck the victim. Applying the deferential any-rational-trier standard, the court deemed the trial court's inference securely reasonable and entered final judgment reinstating both convictions. The opinion also clarified that only one of the four conjunctively pleaded intents must be proved and that the taunting circumstances present in earlier precedent are not prerequisites for inferring malice.