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Abrams v. State

The defendant's ex-wife could testify that he admitted murdering his sister since the evidence contradicted the defendant's claim that he and the ex-wife had a common law marriage.

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Appellant Roosevelt Abrams was convicted of malice murder in the stabbing death of his sister, Rosie Johnson, and was sentenced to life in prison.1 On appeal, he contends, among other things, that the trial court erred in permitting Katrina Douglas to testify about statements that Abrams made to her at the crime scene. We conclude, however, that the trial court did not err in permitting Douglas to testify. Finding no merit to Abrams’s other contentions, we affirm.

The evidence would have authorized a rational trier of fact to find that in February 1998 Johnson called Katrina Douglas, and asked her to come to Macon from her home in Cleveland, Ohio, to help with Abrams’s drinking problem. Abrams and Douglas had entered into a ceremonial marriage in 1985, but were divorced in 1986. They subsequently had lived together until 1993. Douglas arrived in Macon on February 16, 1998. One night after Douglas arrived at Rosie Johnson’s house, Abrams called her out to the living room. Douglas found Rosie Johnson sitting in a chair, eyes closed, with blood on her left side. Abrams then said to Douglas: “I killed her because I am tired of her F’ing over me.” He also told Douglas “you’re next.” Douglas then went to the bus station and boarded a bus to take her back to Cleveland. She was detained in Nashville until Georgia authorities could speak with her. The victim died of a stab wound to the chest that cut her aorta.

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