Garrett v. State

A Bartow County jury found Tracey Lyne Garrett guilty as charged on an eight count indictment that included, inter alia, a charge of burglary which arose when Garrett and his co-defendant/brother cut the ten foot high chain link fence topped with barbed wire that surrounds Bartow Farm and Lawn, Inc. on Highway 441 in Cartersville and removed a commercial grade lawnmower from a storage shelter attached to the rear of the business. Without challenging the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the actual commission of the acts, Garrett appeals, claiming 1 that the trial court erred in denying his motion for directed verdict on the burglary count because, as a matter of law, the shelter from which Garrett removed the lawnmower was not a “building” within the meaning of the burglary statute; and 2 that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. Upon review of the errors as alleged, we affirm Garrett’s conviction.

1. Our burglary statute, OCGA § 16-7-1 a, states in pertinent part that a person commits the offense of burglary when, without authority and with the intent to commit a felony or theft therein, he enters any building or part thereof. The definition of “building” is at issue in this enumeration of error. In that regard, “Georgia’s burglary statute is very broad and does not limit its application to buildings of any particular type or in any particular condition.”1 The statute has been interpreted as applying to buildings of “whatever kind.”2 And this interpretation is consistent with precedent established under our prior burglary statute, which defined “burglary” as