Wheeler v. State

Following a jury trial, seventy-three-year-old Martin Wheeler was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated assault in connection with the strangling, beating, and stabbing death of his elderly and wheelchair-bound ex-girlfriend, Pearl Johnson.1 On appeal Wheeler contends, among other things, that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions and that his trial counsel was ineffective. We affirm. 1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the evidence reveals that, on the evening of January 6, 2007, Johnson allowed Wheeler to enter her home. The next day, police found Johnson’s beaten, stabbed, and strangled body in her living room, and blood evidence collected at the scene later connected Wheeler to the crime. At trial, Wheeler’s ex-wife of twenty years and three of his ex-girlfriends testified about Wheeler’s physical abuse of them and his attempts to strangle them —sometimes nearly to the point of death —and his threatening of them with a knife. Johnson’s children also testified about Wheeler having physically abused and strangled their mother in the past. A letter written by Johnson was also admitted into evidence in which Johnson explained that, if ever she was killed, Wheeler should be investigated.

The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Wheeler guilty of malice murder beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979.