Cornelius Mason and co-defendants Etheridge Conaway and Paul Benjamin Green,1 were jointly tried and convicted for murder and other offenses in connection with the shooting death of Antonio Johnson, as well as related crimes against Leroy Sanders.2 On appeal, Mason asserts that his trial should have been severed from that of his co-defendants, that the trial court gave an erroneous jury instruction on aggravated assault, and that trial counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance. Finding no reversible error, we affirm. The evidence at trial established that Mason sold illegal drugs from his home. In the early morning hours of January 1, 1998, victims Johnson and Sanders went to Mason’s home to purchase marijuana. Mason accused Johnson of having been involved in a prior plot to rob him, and he forced Johnson and Sanders onto the floor while he interrogated them. When Sanders denied the accusations, Mason slapped him and ordered him to shut up. Each of the three co-defendants produced handguns and held the victims captive, occasionally pistol whipping them, while other drug purchasers came and left the house. At gunpoint, Mason ordered Sanders up the stairs and onto his knees. After a period of time, Conaway took Sanders outside and forced him at gunpoint into a car. Conaway drove around the block, warning Sanders: “don’t make me have to kill you, tell me everything you know.” When Sanders insisted that he had no knowledge of a robbery plot, Conaway drove him back to Mason’s house. There Sanders observed Johnson lying on the floor under a sheet; his head and feet were visible and he appeared to have been bound. At that point, Mason, who was “giving all the orders,” allowed Sanders to leave the house.
Mason removed money from Johnson’s wallet and then instructed the others to shoot him. Conaway held the muzzle of his gun directly against Johnson’s left side and fired one bullet, injuring him. Mason ordered Conaway and Green to kill the wounded Johnson and take him somewhere to bury him. Conaway and Green wrapped Johnson in a sheet, placed him in the back seat of a vehicle, and drove him to a nearby high school. Green removed him from the car, and shot him five times, killing him. The two took Johnson’s jacket and wallet and hid the murder weapon.
