Class 6 Felony Punishment in Virginia: One to Five Years

The punishment for a Class 6 felony in Virginia has two forms, and which one applies is a decision made at sentencing. Va. Code § 18.2-10(f) authorizes “a term of imprisonment of not less than one year nor more than five years, or in the discretion of the jury or the court trying the case without a jury, confinement in jail for not more than 12 months and a fine of not more than $2,500, either or both.” One to five years, or a misdemeanor-shaped sentence instead.

The punishment for a Class 6 felony in Virginia

A Class 6 felony is the least serious of the six classes of felony § 18.2-9 creates. The range in § 18.2-10(f) is unusual because it contains its own alternative:

• The felony range: imprisonment of not less than one year nor more than five years.
• The alternative: confinement in jail for not more than 12 months and a fine of not more than $2,500, either or both — available at the discretion of the jury, or of the court where the case is tried without a jury.

Two consequences follow. The first is that the floor is not really one year: a court sitting without a jury may go below it by using the alternative. The second is that the fine and the jail term in the alternative are identical to the maximums for a Class 1 misdemeanor — so the sentence on paper can look the same while the conviction is not.

Section 18.2-10 adds a rule that applies across the felony classes: except where the Class 5 and Class 6 alternatives are used, “the court shall impose either a sentence of imprisonment together with a fine, or imprisonment only.” And for felony offenses committed on or after 1 July 2000, unless the court orders a suspended term of confinement of at least six months, it must add a term of six months to three years, suspended on successful completion of probation — but only where the sentence includes an active term of incarceration.

Why a Class 6 felony can be punished like a misdemeanor

The alternative in subsection (f) is a deliberate safety valve, and Class 5 has the same one. It means a Class 6 felony spans an enormous practical range: an identical charge can end in five years’ imprisonment or in a fine with no active time, depending on the facts, the record and whether a jury is involved.

What the alternative does not do is change the conviction. A Class 6 felony punished as if it were a misdemeanor is still a felony conviction, with the civil consequences that attach to one. Nothing in § 18.2-10 converts the offense; it only limits the sentence.

That distinction matters more than the numbers for most people reading this, and it is the reason a felony charge is the point at which a Virginia criminal defense lawyer is not optional.

Class 6 felony examples in Virginia’s traffic laws

Almost nothing on a Virginia road is a felony. Section 18.2-8 puts traffic infractions outside the criminal offenses entirely, and the Commonwealth’s criminal traffic charges are overwhelmingly misdemeanors. Two sections reach Class 6.

Offense	Statute	Class	Punishment
Eluding police so as to interfere with or endanger the officer’s vehicle or a person	§ 46.2-817 B	Class 6 felony	One to five years, or the jail-and-fine alternative
Eluding police, where a pursuing officer is killed as a direct and proximate result	§ 46.2-817 C	Class 4 felony	Two to 10 years and a fine of not more than $100,000
Reckless driving while suspended for a moving violation, causing a death	§ 46.2-868 B	Class 6 felony	One to five years, or the jail-and-fine alternative
Eluding police — failing to stop for a signal	§ 46.2-817 A	Class 2 misdemeanor	Up to six months and a fine of not more than $1,000
Reckless driving, all other forms	§ 46.2-868 A	Class 1 misdemeanor	Up to 12 months and a fine of not more than $2,500

Section 46.2-817 shows how narrow the felony version is. Subsection A — failing to stop for an officer’s signal, or attempting to escape “whether on foot, in the vehicle, or by any other means” — is a Class 2 misdemeanor. Subsection B is a Class 6 felony, and the added element is that the driving was done “so as to interfere with or endanger the operation of the law-enforcement vehicle or endanger a person.” Both subsections give the same affirmative defense: that the defendant reasonably believed they were being pursued by someone other than a law-enforcement officer.

Section 46.2-817 D also requires a licence suspension on any conviction under the section — not less than 30 days nor more than one year, and not less than 90 days where the driver’s speed exceeded the maximum allowed by 20 miles per hour.

Section 46.2-868 is the other route, and it is narrower still. Subsection A makes every reckless driving conviction under Article 7 a Class 1 misdemeanor. Subsection B raises it to a Class 6 felony only where the driver, at the time of the offense, “was driving without a valid operator’s license due to a suspension or revocation for a moving violation” and, “as the sole and proximate result of his reckless driving, caused the death of another.” Both conditions have to be met.

Class 6 compared with the other felony classes

Section 18.2-10 sets the punishment for all six classes, and the gap between Class 6 and the classes above it is the whole reason the class matters.

Class	Authorized punishment
Class 1 felony	Imprisonment for life and a fine of not more than $100,000
Class 2 felony	Imprisonment for life or any term not less than 20 years and a fine of not more than $100,000
Class 3 felony	Five to 20 years and a fine of not more than $100,000
Class 4 felony	Two to 10 years and a fine of not more than $100,000
Class 5 felony	One to 10 years, or the jail-and-fine alternative
Class 6 felony	One to five years, or the jail-and-fine alternative

Class 5 and Class 6 differ only in the top of the imprisonment range — 10 years against five — and share the alternative. Felonies that carry no class at all are punished by their own section’s words, which is what the phrase “Class U felony” is really pointing at.

Class 6 felony versus a Class 1 misdemeanor

	Class 6 felony	Class 1 misdemeanor
Statute	§ 18.2-10(f)	§ 18.2-11(a)
Imprisonment	One to five years, or up to 12 months in jail under the alternative	Up to 12 months in jail
Maximum fine	$2,500 under the alternative; no separate fine in the felony range	Fine of not more than $2,500
Where served	State correctional facility, or local jail under the alternative	Local or regional jail
Conviction	Felony	Misdemeanor

The bottom row is the one that lasts. Section 18.2-11 caps a Class 1 misdemeanor at 12 months and $2,500 — the same figures as the Class 6 alternative — but § 18.2-8’s line, “such offenses as are punishable with confinement in a state correctional facility are felonies,” means the two convictions are different in kind however similar the sentences look. How the misdemeanor scale works is set out in the guide to misdemeanors in Virginia.

If a traffic case has turned into a felony charge

The practical steps are different from a misdemeanor case, starting with the exposure: § 18.2-8 makes an offense a felony precisely because it is “punishable with confinement in a state correctional facility,” so the sentence is not something a local jail term can absorb. A court hearing a traffic case retains the power to require a driver improvement clinic instead of or in addition to other penalties (§ 46.2-505), but on a felony that is a detail rather than a strategy.

Nothing on this page predicts what a particular court will do, and no page can. What it can do is tell you the range the statute allows, so that advice you get elsewhere can be measured against it — and on a Class 6 felony that advice should come from a Virginia criminal defense lawyer who appears in the circuit court hearing the case. The statutory court fees and the ten-day right of appeal from a district court decision are covered separately.