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Jackson v. State

The trial court did not err in giving the defendant's requested jury charge on accident but refusing to give his requested charge on justification.

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James Gower Jackson was tried by a Clayton County jury and found guilty on two counts of criminal damage to property in the second degree1 and one count of simple assault.2 He now appeals from the denial of his motion for a new trial, arguing that the trial court erred when it refused to instruct the jury on the defense of justification. We find no error and affirm.

“On appeal from a criminal conviction, the defendant is no longer entitled to a presumption of innocence and we therefore construe the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s guilty verdict.” Marriott v. State, 320 Ga. App. 58, 739 SE2d 68 2013 citation omitted. So viewed, the record shows that Jackson was previously employed as a truck driver for Super Service Trucking. On October 27, 2011, while driving a trailer of freight to Tennessee, Jackson used the Qualcom system3 located in the cab of the Super Service truck he was driving to send a message to Bruce Ellington, Super Service’s Director of Operations. Jackson told Ellington that he was going to bring Ellington his “god damn truck” because he was “tired of delivering Super Service’s freight for nothing”; he concluded the message by writing “whatever happens now just remember you drove me to it.” Ellington replied to the message, telling Jackson that he accepted Jackson’s resignation. After receiving Ellington’s reply, and assuming that he had been fired, Jackson dropped the trailer loaded with freight at a truck stop off of I-75 in north Georgia, near the Tennessee line. Jackson then drove the truck cab to the Super Service facility in Ellenwood, Georgia.

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