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Torres v. State

Trial counsel's strategic decision to not pursue a mental health defense in the defendant's murder trial was not unreasonable.

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Following the denial of his motion for new trial, as amended, Abel Torres appeals his convictions of malice murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the fatal shooting of Fernando Gonzalez, and the assaults with a handgun and unlawful detentions of Hector Manuel Romero-Aguirre and Luis Ernesto Garcia-Cantun. Torres’s sole challenge is that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by not pursuing a mental health defense. For the reasons which follow, the challenge is without merit, and we affirm.1

The evidence construed in favor of the verdicts showed the following. On April 26, 2008, Gonzalez was sharing his Newton County home with Torres, Romero-Aguirre, and Garcia-Cantun. Gonzalez, Romero-Aguirre, and Garcia-Cantun had bedrooms on the first floor, and Torres’s bedroom was on the second floor. Torres was staying at the house rent free. Torres always carried a chrome revolver tucked into his belt and kept a box of ammunition in his bedroom. None of the other men used handguns, and Torres’s revolver was the only weapon in the house.

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