David Lamont Mack v Commonwealth

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present: 	Judges Baker, Willis and Overton
Argued at Norfolk, Virginia
DAVID LAMONT MACK MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY
v. 	Record No. 0983-95-1 	JUDGE NELSON T. OVERTON
JUNE 11, 1996
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF CHESAPEAKE
Russell I. Townsend, Jr., Judge
Erik P. Gordon (Law Offices of Allen J.
Gordon, on brief), for appellant.
Monica S. McElyea, Assistant Attorney General
(James S. Gilmore, III, Attorney General, on
brief), for appellee.
*Pursuant to Code § 17-116.010 this opinion is not
designated for publication.
David Lamont Mack was convicted by a jury of armed robbery
in violation of Code § 18.2-58 and use of a firearm in the
commission of a robbery in violation of Code § 18.2-53.1. 	He
argues on appeal that the trial judge erred in admitting evidence
of another robbery charge against Mack and its accompanying
confession.
Evidence of other crimes need not bear such an exact
resemblance to the crime on trial as to constitute a "signature";
it need only bear "a singular strong resemblance to the pattern
of the offense charged." 	Spencer v. Commonwealth, 240 Va. 78,
90, 393 S.E.2d 609, 616 (1990) (quoting United States v. Hudson,
884 F.2d 1016, 1021 (7th Cir. 1989)). 	The evidence will be

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admitted "where the other incidents are 'sufficiently
idiosyncratic to permit an inference of pattern for purposes of
proof,' thus tending to establish the probability of a common
perpetrator." 	Id.
Upon review of the record, construing the evidence in the
light most favorable to the Commonwealth and granting to it all
reasonable inferences fairly deducible therefrom, we cannot say
that the decision below was plainly wrong or unsupported by the
evidence.
Accordingly, the convictions are affirmed.
Affirmed.