McDaniel v. State

A Gwinnett County jury found John McDaniel guilty of three counts of burglary and two counts of theft by taking. The trial court sentenced McDaniel to serve a total of 12 years in confinement and eight years on probation. McDaniel appeals from the judgment of conviction, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, several evidentiary rulings by the trial court, a statute of limitations jury charge, the trial court’s refusal to strike a juror for cause, and the effectiveness of his trial counsel. The challenges are without merit, and we thus affirm McDaniel’s conviction. 1. On appeal from a criminal conviction, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, and the appellant no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence.1 Moreover, the reviewing court determines only the sufficiency of the evidence and does not weigh the evidence or determine the credibility of witnesses.2

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence shows that McDaniel and his accomplice Helen Swafford stole items from houses that were under construction and then sold the items to a woman named Mary Arthur. Sometime between April 18 and 22, 2003, McDaniel and Swafford drove in a motor vehicle owned by Arthur to a Gwinnett County subdivision, where they stole air conditioning units, thermostats, light fixtures, bathroom sinks and faucets from three unfinished houses. Inside one of those houses, police found a pocketknife belonging to McDaniel. Several days later, on April 30, 2003, McDaniel and Swafford returned to that same house and stole a sink, faucet and thermostat. Police found a trail of blood in the house, which was eventually identified as McDaniel’s blood.