Brown v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting into evidence autopsy photographs of the murder victim, since the medical examiner testified that the photographs were necessary to show the extent of the skull fractures the victim suffered, so they were relevant, and the trial court found that the danger of unfair prejudice did not substantially outweigh the probative value.

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Following a jury trial, Roger Shannon Brown appeals his convictions for the malice murder and aggravated assault of Dennis Freeman and the aggravated assault of Roger Emory. Brown contends, among other things, that the trial court gave incomplete jury instructions and that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel.1 For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the record shows that, on the evening of January 18, 2008, Emory, along with his wife, Tammy, his daughter, Laura Free, Timothy Shipman, and Freeman, was working late in an outside wood lot adjacent to a package store. Brown and fellow members of his work crew arrived at the package store to cash their pay checks. At that time, Brown walked behind the package store and began urinating next to a dumpster, in view of Emory and his family and co-workers. Emory asked Brown to stop urinating, and Brown started screaming that Emory was not showing him respect. After a brief confrontation, Brown retrieved a claw hammer and pry bar from his work truck parked nearby. Brown walked toward Emory and the others, beating the pry bar and hammer together in a threatening manner. At this point, Emory was standing by his pickup truck approximately ten feet from Brown, and Freeman was standing approximately five to six feet from Brown. According to Emory, Brown threatened to kill Freeman, who was silently smoking a cigarette. Brown then swung the hammer and struck Freeman in the side of the head, and, as Freeman fell to the ground, fatally wounded, Brown screamed, Die motherf— er. It is undisputed that Freeman neither challenged Brown nor took any aggressive actions towards him.

Brown v. State

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