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Wheeler v. State

The state's racially neutral reasons for striking the sole African-American prospective juror supported the trial court's denial of defendant's Batson motion.

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Within 30 days of being released from jail where he had served a sentence for possession of cocaine, Angelo Lopez Wheeler sold cocaine to an undercover officer. Based on the officer’s testimony and on an audio tape recording of the transaction, a jury found Wheeler guilty of selling cocaine in violation of OCGA § 16-13-30 b.1 Since Wheeler had two prior felony convictions for possessing cocaine and for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, the court sentenced him to life in prison.2

Wheeler raises two issues on appeal. He claims first that the court erred in denying his motion for mistrial which he made when the prosecutor failed to give adequate race-neutral grounds for striking the only African-American on the jury panel. The record reflects that adequate race-neutral grounds were given. Second, he argues that the court erred in considering his two prior drug convictions because they were based on guilty pleas which the State failed to show were made voluntarily. Since Wheeler failed to object to the introduction of his prior convictions, he waived this issue. Accordingly, we affirm.

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