Appling v. State

The defendants shot into a crowd of people from a moving car, fatally wounding one victim and injuring another.

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Appellants Marco Devon Appling and Antonio Lamar Flowers were jointly tried and convicted of the malice murder of Alphonso Parks, the aggravated assault of James Antonio Overton, and other related offenses.1 Because appellants raise similar issues on appeal, their cases have been consolidated. We affirm the judgments of conviction in both cases. 1. The evidence authorized the jury to find that on the night of the crimes, an altercation with a group including Jermaine Brown occurred on Broad Street in Augusta. Appellants later gathered with several others at the home of Appling’s cousin on the 1900 block of Broad Street; Brown reappeared and began shouting. Appellants got into a red Dodge Neon, with Appling driving and Flowers in the front passenger seat, and began driving down the street, seeking Brown. Shots were fired from the car into a crowd, fatally wounding Parks and injuring Overton. Appellants were pulled over for speeding around the 1500 block of Broad Street, less than a mile from the site of the shooting. Appling immediately put his hands out the window when he was stopped. Brown drove up, shouting that appellants had just shot someone, and Appling and Flowers were taken into custody; the deputy confirmed the shooting report with dispatch. Appling told the deputy there was no gun in the car and he did not shoot anyone.

A deputy walked from the traffic stop back toward the site of the shooting and found a Ruger 9 mm handgun in the road. Ten 9 mm cartridge casings were found in the area of the shooting, in a pattern indicating that the shooter had turned and fired back as the car drove away. The casings and the bullet recovered from Parks’s body were fired from the Ruger found in the road. Fresh scratch marks and gunpowder residue were found on the roof of the front passenger side of the red Neon, indicating that a gun had been fired over the roof of the vehicle.

Appling v. State

The defendants shot into a crowd of people from a moving car, fatally wounding one victim and injuring another.

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