An Expert Witness Cannot Give ...

An Expert Witness Cannot Give Opinions that Go to the Ultimate Fact at Issue in a Case.

An expert witness on BB guns testified at a trial that such guns could cause serious bodily injury or death.  Since the jury was, alone, responsible for answering the question as to whether a BB gun was a “deadly weapon,” this testimony was improper.  The defendant’s conviction of entering a bank with a deadly weapon was reversed by the Court of Appeals of Virginia.  The case was Justiss v. Commonwealth (December 11, 2012).