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  • Manner v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-28
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Veronica M. O'Grady (GPDC Appellate Division), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Scott Orion Teague (Department of Law), Atlanta; Anna Green Cross, Lenny I. Krick, Sherry Boston (DeKalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1519

    The trial court properly found that defendant was not entitled to a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel.

  • Jones v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-28
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Boggs
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: James C. Bonner, Jr., Tyler R. Conklin (Georgia Public Defender Council), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Rosemary M. Greene, Sharon Moyer Fox (Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Cartersville, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17G0118

    The Court of Appeals erred in holding that defendant's guilty verdicts for theft by conversion and theft by bringing stolen property into Georgia after he failed to return a car he had rented in Tennessee and drove through Georgia were not mutually exclusive because it was legally and logically impossible to convict the accused of both counts.

  • Lebis v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-28
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff:
    for defendant:
    Case Number: S17A0948

    There was insufficient evidence to support defendant's convictions for two counts of misdemeanor obstruction of a police officer after her husband fatally shot an officer who was attempting to arrest them, but the evidence was sufficient to support her convictions for two other misdemeanor obstruction counts, felony murder and several firearms possession counts.

  • Forte v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-27
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Presiding Justice Melton
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Victoria Lynn Novak (Office of the Public Defender), Columbus, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Ashleigh Dene Headrick (Department of Law), Atlanta; Julia Anne Fessenden Slater, Matthew Jon Landreau, William Donald Kelly, Jr. (Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Columbus, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1912

    The trial court did not plainly err in giving the jury an incomplete charge on malice murder as the jury had a written copy of the complete charges during its deliberation and the trial courts mistake in reading the charge thus did not affect defendant's substantial rights in such a manner as to affect the outcome of the trial court proceedings.

  • Donaldson v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-26
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Blackwell
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Darrell Brinnett Reynolds, Sr. (Darrell B. Reynolds, P.C.), Decatur, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Elizabeth A. Baker, Tracy Graham Lawson, Elizabeth Rosenwasser Rosenwasser (Clayton County District Attorney's Office), Jonesboro, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1350

    Although the evidence supported defendant's convictions for felony murder and one count of firearm possession, the Supreme Court of Georgia vacated his convictions for aggravated assault and a second firearm possession count because the trial court should have merged those convictions into other counts.

  • Dixon v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-26
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Blackwell
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: John William Howe (Law Office of John W. Howe), Carrollton, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Matthew Blackwell Crowder, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Rosemary M. Greene, Sharon Moyer Fox, Andrew Dale Garland (Cherokee Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Cartersville, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1475

    Pretermitting whether the prosecutors question on cross-examination about whether the witness had observed defendants talking and laughing during a break was, in fact, improper, the trial court fully complied with O.C.G.A. § 17-8-75 and did not abuse its discretion in refusing to grant a mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct.

  • Carter v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-22
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Blackwell
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Jonathan P. Lockwood (Brunswick Judicial Circuit Public Defender's Office), Jesup, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Matthew Min-soo Youn (Department of Law), Atlanta; Andrew J. Ekonomou (The Lambros Firm, LLC), Atlanta; Jacquelyn Lee Johnson (Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Woodbine, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1412

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for malice murder and other crimes after he shot his ex-girlfriend's 15-year-old son when the woman ended their relationship to devote more time to the child.

  • Bozzie v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-22
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Peterson
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Micah Jay Gates (Office of the Public Defender for the Conasuaga Judicial Circuit), Dalton, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Scott Orion Teague (Department of Law), Atlanta; Susan Alexandra Beck, Dalton; Herbert McIntosh Poston, Jr. (Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Dalton, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1539

    The trial court did not plainly err in admitting photographs of the victiman in-life photograph and numerous photographs of his dead bodyand certain alleged hearsay statements in defendant's trial for malice murder and other crimes after he intentionally hit the victim with his truck, as admission of one in-life photograph did not affect the outcome of the trial given the strength of the evidence, the photographs of the victim's dead body were admissible and the alleged hearsay was cumulative of other evidence.

  • Moore v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-12
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Per Curiam
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: James Moore, Abbeville, for appellant.
    for defendant: Joshua Smith (District Attorney's Office), Augusta; Henry Syms (Office of the District Attorney), Augusta, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A1457

    Defendant's sentence on his child molestation conviction was void as a matter of law because it did not comply with the O.C.G.A. § 17-10-6.2 split-sentence requirement.

  • Conwell v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-12-11
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
    Judge: Judge Andrews
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Loudon Conwell, Unadilla, for appellant.
    for defendant: Robert James (District Attorney), Decatur; Deborah Wellborn (Assistant District Attorney), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A2068

    Although the trial court properly determined defendant's recidivist status when it sentenced him following his convictions for aggravated assault with intent to rape, two counts of false imprisonment and rape, the sentence the trial court entered was illegal because it did not include a split sentence on the aggravated assault with intent to rape conviction in accordance with O.C.G.A. § 17-10-6.2 subsection (b).