Hulett v. State

A jury convicted Donnie Allen Hulett of two counts of malice murder and numerous related crimes, and Hulett waived his right to a jury trial as to sentencing for the murders. At the conclusion of a bench trial on sentencing, the trial court found the existence of multiple statutory aggravating circumstances and sentenced Hulett to death for each of the murders. See OCGA § 17-10-30 b, 17-10-31 a. Hulett’s motion for new trial was denied, and he appeals his convictions and sentences.1 For the reasons set forth below, we affirm in part and vacate in part.

Sufficiency of the Evidence1. The evidence presented at trial showed the following. On July 22, 2002, between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m., the assistant director of the Mountain Top Boys Home in LaFayette saw brothers Larry and Arvine Phelps drive onto the home’s property in Larry Phelps’ red Ford F-150 pickup truck. Both brothers were retired educators, and they had volunteered to cut trees and clear an area for a new building for the home. At approximately 10:30 a.m., the assistant director and boys from the home were headed to the post office in the home’s van when they noticed a white Chevrolet Cavalier that was parked on the side of the road a few hundred yards past the home’s driveway. They saw a white male near the automobile. Two boys in the van had also separately seen the Cavalier in the same spot the evening before, and one of the boys had noticed steam coming from the Cavalier and a white male standing at the automobile’s open hood, indicating that the Cavalier had broken down.