Tarpley v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow the defendant to introduce evidence of the victim's prior acts of violence, as the defendant failed to establish a prima facie case of justification.

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Appellant Hoke Smith Tarpley was convicted of malice murder in connection with the shooting death of his uncle, Earnest Claude Estes, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Tarpley now appeals, challenging the admissibility of certain evidence, the trial court’s jury instructions, and the manner in which the trial court handled certain reciprocal discovery violations. Finding no error, we affirm.1

Viewed in a light most favorable to the jury’s verdicts, the evidence adduced at trial established as follows. In the early-morning hours of February 9, 2006, deputies from the Laurens County Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of a shooting in Caldwell, Georgia. Upon arrival, deputies discovered Estes slumped over on a couch, dead from gunshot wounds. Family members led the deputies to Tarpley – whose residence was situated on an adjacent lot – who provided a statement to the officers. Tarpley advised the deputies that he and Estes had been at Estes’ residence watching television and drinking alcohol when Estes snapped and physically assaulted him. Tarpley reported that Estes choked him and placed a cocked gun against his head; he explained that, once he was able to leave Estes’ residence, he retreated to his own home where he retrieved a 12-gauge shotgun, and he returned to Estes’ property where he shot Estes twice through the front-yard window. The jury heard evidence, however, that Estes’ revolver was found unloaded and holstered on a coffee table and that, although Tarpley appeared to have some type of facial injury, there was no sign of a struggle at Estes’ residence; likewise, the jury also learned that, despite Tarpley’s contention that Estes saw and threatened Tarpley through the window,

Tarpley v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow the defendant to introduce evidence of the victim's prior acts of violence, as the defendant failed to establish a prima facie case of justification.

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