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Payne v. State

Defendant was not entitled to a mistrial based on the prosecutor's closing argument that defendant's voluntary use of alcohol and drugs did not excuse his conduct.

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While walking past George Palmer’s residence, Andre Harris and John Masquera saw Ray Anthony Payne beating Mr. Palmer. After they yelled at Payne to stop, he walked outside, covered in blood, and asked Harris to go to his apartment and get a knife. Harris and Masquera called the police who, upon their arrival, questioned Payne. He was wearing different clothes, but his hands were still bloody, and he appeared nervous and smelled of alcohol. The officers then discovered Mr. Palmer’s body. He suffered multiple stab wounds, and died from a lacerated pulmonary artery. The victim’s empty wallet lay on his stomach, and there was a bloody knife with a bent blade in the kitchen. Payne entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to an indictment charging him with malice murder and with the possession of a knife during the commission of that crime. The jury found him “guilty but mentally ill.” The trial court imposed a life sentence for the murder and a consecutive five-year term of imprisonment for the weapons offense. Payne appeals from the judgments of conviction and sentences entered on the jury’s guilty verdicts.1

1. Citing the lack of any eyewitness testimony that he stabbed Mr. Palmer or that he possessed a knife, Payne contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the guilty verdicts. A conviction is authorized if the circumstantial evidence excludes every reasonable inference and hypothesis except the guilt of the accused. Spear v. State, 270 Ga. 628, 629 1 513 SE2d 489 1999. When the evidence in this case is construed most strongly in favor of the verdict, it is sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find proof of the Defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979.

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