Thomas v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant's motion for a change of venue due to pretrial publicity, as the defendant failed to establish that the 15 percent excusal percentage was indicative of inherent prejudice.

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Appellant Clifton Thomas challenges his convictions of numerous crimes, including malice murder, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, committed at two different convenience stores in Athens, Georgia, on the same night.1 Finding no merit to his contentions, we affirm. 1. The evidence presented at trial, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, showed the following. Shortly after 3:30 a.m. on December 5, 2007, the police responded to a shooting at a convenience store in Athens. They discovered the store clerk, Djamal Atroune, lying on the floor, bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to his back. Paramedics took the victim to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Daphne Brown, who worked at another convenience store in Athens, was robbed at gunpoint around 4:00 a.m. on the same night. Eyewitness descriptions, as well as video surveillance tapes from the two stores, indicated that the perpetrator at both stores was a man of similar size wearing similar clothing, including a dark colored hoodie and jeans and a thin black mask covering his nose and mouth. Brown provided information for a sketch of the robber and at trial identified Appellant as the robber, explaining that even though he wore a wave cap and a thin mask, she got a good look at his eyes and could see the shape of his nose and lips.

On the night of the crimes, Appellant was with two cousins and a friend until about 2:30 a.m. He was wearing a dark hoodie and jeans. Shortly before 2:30 a.m., the four had stopped at a convenience store just outside Athens. One of Appellant’s cousins and his friend identified Appellant in still photographs taken from that store’s video surveillance system, which showed that the clothes Appellant was wearing at that store matched the clothes worn by the robber at the two Athens stores.

Thomas v. State

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant's motion for a change of venue due to pretrial publicity, as the defendant failed to establish that the 15 percent excusal percentage was indicative of inherent prejudice.

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