The full Virginia Court of Appeals has agreed to review a panel decision that affirmed a man’s conviction in a 2008 Manassas shooting death.
The court granted a rehearing for Sebastian Cortez-Hernandez, who was convicted in Prince William County of fatally shooting Omar Vasquez.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled in April that the trial judge did not make a reversible error in refusing to allow Cortez-Hernandez’s defense attorney to cross-examine a witness a second time after a prosecutor elicited new information during re-direct examination.
Court records say the prosecutor didn’t ask a witness about the fight and shooting itself until re-direct examination. The judge then denied a defense request for a second cross-examination.
That violated the Constitution’s Confrontation Clause, appeals court Judge James Haley Jr. wrote in a dissent after the panel heard the case.
Two other men pleaded guilty in Vasquez’s death.
