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Sumlin v. State

The trial court did not err in failing to sua sponte instruct the jury on circumstantial evidence, since the state presented both direct and circumstantial evidence.

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Appellant Leroy Sumlin appeals from his conviction of felony murder, aggravated assault, and related offenses in connection with the July 7, 2004 shooting death of Antonio Taylor.1 Finding no error, we affirm. 1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence established that on the evening and into the morning of July 6-7, 2004, appellant was at his family’s home at 229 Vine Street in Northwest Atlanta, drinking and carousing with his brother, Lawrence Sumlin, and friends Tamiko Jones and Eddie Dawson. As the evening progressed, appellant and his brother began arguing and hitting each other, and appellant threatened Lawrence with a gun, prompting him to call 911.2 At some point, Antonio Taylor joined the Sumlin brothers and Dawson, and Jones went inside to go to sleep. Taylor and appellant began arguing over money that appellant claimed Taylor owed him for “screwing up” a bag of appellant’s cocaine. Dawson left to buy cigarettes, returned to find appellant and Taylor on the porch still arguing, and urged Taylor to leave to allow tempers to cool. As Taylor was walking up the street away from the house, he was shot in the chest. Taylor died from his wound.

Immediately after the shooting, appellant went into the bedroom where Jones had been sleeping and poured bleach on his hands, and then summoned Jones to jump out the window with him. Appellant gave the gun to Dawson, who in turn gave the gun to a neighbor, Quinton Benton.

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