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Palmer v. State

There was no evidence that police induced defendant's confession and the evidence showed that he was taking medication, which controlled his psychotic disorder throughout the time period in question.

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A jury in Richmond County convicted Bradford Eugene Palmer of malice murder for the killing of Jacqueline Ballard, feticide for the killing of Ballard’s unborn child, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime.1 On appeal, Palmer contends that the trial court erred by allowing the statements he made to police to be admitted at trial. Because Palmer’s statements were voluntarily and knowingly given to police, the trial court did not err by admitting them into evidence. 1. The evidence presented at trial showed that on January 7, 2000, police arrested Palmer after discovering Jacqueline Ballard’s body in the trunk of the car that Palmer was driving. Ballard had been killed by a .45 caliber bullet wound to the head. On the day after his arrest, Palmer led police to the place where she had been shot. Palmer told police that he and Ballard had been driving in Ballard’s car, that he had ordered her out of the vehicle on a deserted road, and that he shot her because she owed him money for drugs. After the shooting, Palmer put Ballard’s body in the trunk of her car and drove away.

The evidence also showed that Ballard was twenty weeks pregnant at the time of the killing, and that the fetus did not survive its mother’s death. The state’s expert testified that at that stage of its development the fetus would be considered “quick,” meaning that it was able to move in its mother’s womb.2

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