Ford v. State

The trial court erred in sentencing the defendant for the aggravated assaults of the two murder victims, as those convictions should have merged as a matter of fact into his convictions for malice murder.

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Appellant Marcus Ford appeals his convictions stemming from the shooting deaths of Paul Gaines Paul and Michael Gaines Michael, as well as the aggravated assaults of Isaac Walker Walker and Antwan Clark Clark.1 We affirm in part and vacate in part.

1. Appellant alleges the evidence was insufficient to convict. The record, viewed in a light most favorable to upholding the verdicts, shows that Paul, Walker and Clark sold crack cocaine from their apartment in East Point, Georgia. Walker testified that Paul taught appellant how to cook powder cocaine so as to turn it into crack cocaine. Paul believed that appellant was using Benjamin Hickey, who was a neighborhood man going by the nickname of Pee Wee, to intercept and divert Paul’s crack customers to appellant.2 On the night in question, Paul, Michael, Walker, and Clark drove to appellant’s house to confront him about diverting Paul’s drug customers.3 Paul exited the vehicle, approached appellant, who was on the porch of his house, and the two began to argue while the other three men looked on from inside the car. Appellant brandished a gun at Paul, causing the other three men to exit the vehicle and to plead with Paul to leave. As Michael reached for Paul’s arm to urge him to leave, appellant opened fire. Michael went down immediately, but Paul was able to run. Appellant chased after Paul, continuing to shoot at him until he fell. Upon appellant’s further threats of shooting them, Walker and Clark fled on foot. Appellant left the scene in his vehicle and stopped to throw the gun away in a river. Appellant eventually turned himself in to authorities.

Ford v. State

The trial court erred in sentencing the defendant for the aggravated assaults of the two murder victims, as those convictions should have merged as a matter of fact into his convictions for malice murder.

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