Coleman Wayne Gray v. Commonwealth of Virginia; Coleman Wayne Gray v. Commonwealth of Virginia

Summary

The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed Coleman Wayne Gray's capital murder conviction and death sentence for the robbery, abduction, and execution-style shooting of Richard McClelland, a Murphy's Mart manager, rejecting all 41 assignments of error. The court held Gray's statements to police voluntary with valid Miranda waivers, the drug-warrant search and consent search of his automobile lawful, the informant's identity privileged, the charging election against Gray a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion, and the evidence sufficient to prove Gray was the trigger man. On mandatory sentence review, it found both the 'dangerousness' and 'vileness' predicates supported beyond a reasonable doubt and the death sentence neither arbitrary nor disproportionate. No separate opinions were filed.