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Sturgis v. State

The defendant shot one victim to death and waived his gun in another victim's face, while demanding to know what he was doing at the first victim's residence.

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In 2005, a McDuffie County jury convicted Rochester Sturgis of malice murder, aggravated assault, and related offenses in connection with the shooting death of Bridget Vanessa Johnson. Sturgis appeals, arguing that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. Finding no merit in Sturgis’s arguments, we affirm.1 1. The evidence presented at trial would have enabled a rational trier of fact to find as follows. On the morning of November 4, 2003, Rochester Sturgis went uninvited to the home of Bridget Vanessa Johnson and her roommate, Kenny Kendrick. Sturgis, a smalltime loan shark in the area, had been friends with Johnson for years and had loaned her money from time to time. He also loaned money to Kendrick on occasion at 50 weekly interest. The owner of the house, Kendrick’s mother, had previously told Sturgis on several occasions that he was not welcome there.

When Sturgis drove up, Johnson was in the kitchen preparing breakfast for herself, Kendrick, and one of their friends who was visiting, Kenneth Grant. Grant was relaxing on the sofa in the living room, and Kendrick was sitting outside on the porch. Sturgis demanded to know who was inside the house with Johnson. Kendrick was afraid Sturgis would become violent if he knew Johnson was in the house with another man, so he lied and said the other person in the house with Johnson was a woman named Loretta. Satisfied with this answer, Sturgis turned his vehicle around and left.

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