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Skaggs v. State

The trial court properly excluded irrelevant statistical analyses dealing with instances of fatal traumatic brain injuries since statistics on the frequency or infrequency of death from brain trauma have no bearing on state law providing for felony murder convictions based on the commission of aggravated assault.

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A jury found Jimmy Skaggs guilty of felony murder during the commission of aggravated assault. After entering judgment of conviction on the guilty verdict, the trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment. Skaggs moved unsuccessfully for new trial, and now appeals to this Court.1 1. During a party, Skaggs argued with Jason Buck and threatened to kill him. The confrontation took place in a parking lot, and escalated into a physical attack when Skaggs struck and bloodied Buck’s nose. Skaggs, who was wearing steel-toed boots, then delivered a karate-style kick to Buck’s chin. The force of the blow was such that Buck’s body left the ground, and he fell headfirst onto the concrete. Some days later, Buck died as the result of trauma to his skull and brain.

Skaggs urges that this evidence is not sufficient to authorize his conviction, because Buck died from injuries sustained in the fall onto the concrete rather than from the blows to his head. In a criminal case, proximate cause exists when the accused’s ” ‘act or omission played a substantial part in bringing about or actually causing the victim’s injury or damage and . . . the injury or damage was either a direct result or a reasonably probable consequence of the act or omission.’ Cit.” Pitts v. State , 253 Ga. App. 373, 374-375 1 559 SE2d 106 2002. In cases of felony murder, “ for example, legal cause will not be present where there intervenes 1 a coincidence that is not reasonably foreseeable . . . or 2 an abnormal response.” 1 LaFave, Substantive Criminal Law, § 6.4 h, p. 495 2d ed. 2003.

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