Crews v. State

Following a jury trial, J’Quante Crews was found guilty of malice murder Count 1, two counts of felony murder Counts 2 and 4, aggravated assault Count 5, armed robbery Count 6, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony Count 7, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon Count 8 in connection with his role in the shooting death of Vernon Forrest.1 On appeal, Crews contends that his convictions should be reversed and that he should be granted a new trial due to alleged juror misconduct, and that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence expert testimony from a lay witness. For the reasons that follow, we find Crews’ challenges to his convictions to be without merit. Thus, we affirm his convictions. However, we also find that trial court erred with respect to the portion of Crews’ sentence relating to armed robbery Count 6, so we must also vacate the erroneous portion of Crews’ sentence and remand this case to the trial court for the imposition of an appropriate sentence on the armed robbery count. Accordingly, we affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand this case for sentencing on armed robbery Count 6.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the evidence presented at trial revealed that, at around 11:00 pm on July 25, 2009, Crews was at a Chevron gas station near Mechanicsville, in Atlanta, Georgia, along with his co-indictees, Demario Ware and Charmon Sinkfield. The three men were sitting in Ware’s red Pontiac, waiting for their friends, Patrick David Wilson and Anthony Hollis, before going to a strip club. Eventually, Wilson and Hollis arrived at the Chevron in a blue Ford Expedition.