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Sears v. State

The trial court erred in failing to merge the defendant's aggravated assault conviction with his felony murder conviction, as the aggravated assault conviction was the predicate felony of the greater charge.

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Robert Allen Sears was tried by a Chatham County jury and convicted of the murder of Isaiah Lovett, aggravated assault, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony. Following the denial of his motion for new trial, Sears appeals and asserts several claims of error, including that the trial court erred when it failed to merge the aggravated assault into his murder conviction. We agree with Sears that the failure to merge was error, and we vacate his conviction for aggravated assault and remand for the trial court to sentence him again. We find no merit in the other claims of error, however, and we otherwise affirm the judgment of the trial court.1

1. Construed most strongly in support of the verdict, the evidence shows that Sears went on the morning of August 29, 2008 to the Savannah boarding house in which Lovett lived. Several residents overheard Sears banging on the door to Lovett’s room and yelling about a lawnmower that Lovett apparently had borrowed. A neighbor saw Lovett emerge from his room, and he observed Lovett and Sears engaged in a physical altercation, which left Lovett bleeding profusely from several stab wounds. Lovett subsequently died of those stab wounds. Although no one testified that he saw Sears with a knife during the altercation, Sears’s shirt was covered in blood afterwards, and he was seen with a knife as he fled from the boarding house.

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