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Johnson v. State

The defendant's convictions and sentences for aggravated assault and armed robbery should have merged into his felony murder convictions predicated on those offenses.

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Appellant Donterrius Johnson was convicted of two counts of felony murder and related offenses in connection with the beating deaths of two victims in separate incidents in 2009. Johnson now appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, the admission of his videotaped police interview, and the propriety of his sentencing, and contending that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. We agree that Johnson was improperly sentenced on the two felonies underlying his felony murder convictions and therefore vacate his sentences on Counts 2 and 5. In all other respects, we affirm.1

On August 29, 2009, Johnson and accomplice Corey Singleton encountered victim Robert Crawford sitting on the front stoop of the Valdosta boardinghouse in which he resided. Johnson and Singleton approached and began talking to Crawford, and Singleton asked Crawford whether he wanted to buy some crack cocaine. Singleton then hit Crawford in the face and dragged him off the stoop into the front yard. Johnson began hitting and kicking Crawford, while Singleton went through Crawford’s pockets, seized his wallet, and went through its contents. Johnson and Singleton then ran away in different directions. Police responding to the scene found Crawford lying face down in the yard, unresponsive, with abrasions on his head and footprints on the back of his shirt. A cell phone holder and other items appearing to have come from a wallet were found close by. Crawford died twelve days later from complications of blunt force head trauma.

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