Derrick Clements was charged with malice murder and other crimes arising out of the 1997 shooting death of Tanika Stevenson. In 1999 a jury acquitted Clements of malice murder but found him guilty of felony murder, armed robbery, kidnapping with bodily injury, entering an automobile with intent to commit theft and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Although Clements filed a timely motion for new trial, the motion was not ruled upon until 2010 when the trial court granted the motion on certain grounds and denied it on other grounds.1 We granted the State’s application for interlocutory appeal to review the trial court’s ruling. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the trial court in Case No. S11A0628 and, finding no reversible error in the matters raised by Clements in his cross appeal, we affirm the trial court in Case No. S11X0699. 1. The judge who granted Clements’ motion for a new trial did not preside over the trial itself and did not hear any live testimony at the hearing on the motion other than that from Clements’ trial counsel regarding an ineffectiveness claim not at issue in these appeals. Accordingly, as to the issue raised in these appeals, the successor judge’s factual rulings are not accorded the same broad deference given to findings by the presiding judge. See Head v. CSX Transp. , 271 Ga. 670 2 524 SE2d 215 1999. Moreover, the grant of a motion for new trial on special grounds involving a question of law is reviewed de novo and reversed if the trial court committed legal error. See O’Neal v. State , 285 Ga. 361 677 SE2d 90 2009. The State contends the successor judge erred by granting a new trial after the successor judge found that the presiding judge manifestly abused his discretion for failing to dismiss a juror in this case. We agree with the State and reverse for the following reasons.
The record establishes that juror Henderson was among the jurors selected the first day of the trial to serve on the petit jury. After opening statements were presented, court was recessed until the following day with the jurors cautioned not to discuss the case “at any time or during the overnight with your family or your friends or anything like that.” The following day before any evidence was presented, juror Henderson presented the presiding judge with a letter. The presiding judge read the letter for the record: Dear Judge, my husband saw the news this morning and came to me and said do not let them put me on this trial for Derrick Clements because I coached him in baseball. He could tell by the look on my face that it was too late. I have literally been sick over this and unsure of what I need to do. I know that I could listen to the trial and be unbiased; however, my husband is in hopes of returning to Manchester High School next year to teach again and I am afraid some people might have hard feelings toward him due to the outcome of this trial. Please tell me what I need to do. After clarifying that the issue had only arisen that morning, the juror answered questions posed by trial judge. In the first question, in which the trial judge noted how jury service on such a case “is not easy” but asked whether the juror could “still be fair and impartial,” the juror responded that she was “sure” that she could but that she “wanted to be honest before it began and let y’all know that, you know, my husband came to me this morning and told me this.” The juror acknowledged that she could still be fair and impartial “even with this disclosure that happened this morning” and that she had not “made up her mind” and still had “an open mind.” Defense counsel then questioned the juror carefully about her husband’s job situation, in which she explained that her husband used to teach at Manchester High School, was currently coaching at another high school and “has plans to going back to Manchester next year if one teacher retires that has said he was going to.” Defense counsel next directly asked the juror if she felt “any pressure that your husband’s opportunity to get this job would be better or increased if you were on a jury that convicted Clements rather than found him not guilty.” The juror’s answer was unequivocal: “I don’t think the verdict would have any impact on him getting the job.” She then explained that she hoped “that once her husband goes back up there, you know, the students up there wouldn’t have a problem with him.”
