Ganas v. State

The trial court properly refused to allow the defendant to question the prospective jurors about their feelings on the credibility of witnesses, the state's burden of proof and cases involving a man beating a woman, since those questions were not designed to elicit juror bias.

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Angry at his girlfriend, William Ganas viciously beat, kicked, choked, and stomped on her, resulting in severe bruises and swelling on her face and back, a laceration on her nose bridge, and a broken little finger on her left hand. A jury found him guilty of aggravated battery,1 and his motion for new trial was denied. He appeals, enumerating the insufficiency of the evidence, errors in voir dire, errors in the charge, and error in the removal of a juror who knew the victim. We hold that the evidence sufficed to sustain the verdict, that the judge properly limited questions in voir dire, that the charge was authorized by the evidence, and that the judge was authorized to remove the juror, and thus we affirm.

1. Claiming the court erred in denying Ganas’s motion for a directed verdict, in denying his motion for new trial, in instructing the jury on aggravated battery, and in allowing the prosecution to argue aggravated battery to the jury, the first six enumerations of error all depend on whether the evidence sufficed to sustain a conviction for aggravated battery by each of the three alternative statutory methods all of which were alleged in the same count of the indictment by which one may commit this offense. OCGA § 16-5-24 a provides that one commits the offense of aggravated battery by maliciously causing any of the three following harms to a victim: i seriously disfiguring her body or a member thereof, ii rendering a member of her body useless, or iii depriving her of a member of her body. All three methods were alleged in the same count of the indictment and charged to the jury as a possible basis for a finding of guilt, and therefore, error exists unless evidence supported a finding on all three.2

Ganas v. State

The trial court properly refused to allow the defendant to question the prospective jurors about their feelings on the credibility of witnesses, the state's burden of proof and cases involving a man beating a woman, since those questions were not designed to elicit juror bias.

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