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  • Cannon v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-10
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Benham
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Dell Jackson, Decatur, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, S. Taylor Johnston (Department of Law), Atlanta; Anna Green Cross, Sherry Boston, Gerald Mason (Dekalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1127

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for felony murder and aggravated assault after he stabbed a man in the neck in a restaurant because he believed the man owed him money and defendant did not prove his ineffective assistance of counsel claims.

  • Glenn v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-09
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Georgia Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Matthew K. Winchester (Law Offices of Matthew K. Winchester), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Meghan Hobbs Hill, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Lenny I. Krick, Sherry Boston, Anna Green Cross (Dekalb County District Attorneys Office), Decatur; Harry Steven Ruth (Office of the District Attorney), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A0858

    The Court affirmed defendant's murder conviction, finding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting lay witnesses to give testimony identifying defendant as one of the people in a surveillance video recording of the murder and robbery and the trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress evidence seized during the search of his sisters apartment.

  • Miller v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-08
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Court of Appeals
    Judge: Presiding Judge Barnes
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Ramon Alvarado (Attorney at Law), Norcross, for appellant.
    for defendant: Stephanie Woodard (Solicitor General), Gainesville; Michael George (Hall County Solicitor General's Office), Gainesville, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A0651

    In defendant's DUI trial, the trial court admitted defendant's prior DUI conviction for proper purposes, including that such evidence tended to show her knowledge of the effects of alcohol consumption on her driving and knowledge about the use of testing to determine impairment, and the trial court was authorized to find that the probative value of the evidence was not substantially outweighed by its prejudicial impact, despite the age of the prior DUI conviction.

  • Olevik v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-07
    Practice Area: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Peterson
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Lance Warren Tyler (Tyler Law Firm, LLC), Suwanee, for appellant.
    for defendant: Rosanna M. Szabo, Samuel Richard d'Entremont, Joelle M. Nazaire (Office of the Gwinnett County Solicitor General), Lawrenceville, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A0738

    The Georgia Constitution's protection against compelled self-incrimination prohibits law enforcement from compelling a person suspected of DUI to blow their deep lung air into a breathalyzer.

  • Salazar-Balderas v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-07
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Court of Appeals
    Judge: Judge Bethel
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Lynn Kleinrock (Law Office of Lynn M. Kleinrock), Tucker, for appellant.
    for defendant: Daniel Porter (District Attorney Gwinnett Justice & Administrative Center), Lawrenceville; Charissa Henrich (Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office), Lawrenceville, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A0819

    The trial court erred in refusing to give defendant's requested charge on defense of habitation in his trial on charges of serious injury by vehicle, reckless driving, failure to stop at or return to the scene of an accident, following too closely and driving without a license, and the Court, therefore, reversed his convictions.

  • Olsen v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-07
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Benham
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Donald Franklin Samuel, Amanda Rourk Clark Palmer (Garland, Samuel & Loeb, P.C.), Atlanta; Donald C. English (Southern States PBA, Inc.), McDonough, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Anna Green Cross, Christopher Wells Timmons, Sherry Boston, District Attorney (DeKalb County District Attorney's Office), Decatur, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1014

    The trial court properly denied defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment against him for felony murder and other charges because the presence of non-lawyer and lawyer spectators during the presentation of evidence to the grand jury did not violate the recognized need for grand jury secrecy or compromise the grand jurys independence from outside influence and defendant failed to show that he was prejudiced by the presence of those individuals.

  • White v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-06
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Nahmias
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: William A. Morrison (The Morrison Firm), Atlanta, for appellant.
    for defendant: Richard King Bridgeman, George R. Christian (Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), Toccoa; Paula Khristian Smith, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1083

    The trial court properly dismissed defendant's pro se motions to withdraw his guilty pleas to felony murder and other crimes because he was represented by counsel when he filed the motions and the filings were therefore legal nullities.

  • Henry v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-03
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Court of Appeals
    Judge: Judge Doyle
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Timothy Henry, Waycross, for appellant.
    for defendant: Samuel Altman (District Attorney Middle Judicial Circuit), Swainsboro; John Fitzner (Middle Judicial Circuit), Swainsboro, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A0999

    Although the trial court properly sentenced defendant as a recidivist to life in prison without the possibility of parole on his convictions for two counts of aggravated sodomy, the trial court erred in failing to impose a split sentence on his child molestation conviction; accordingly, the Court vacated the sentence and remanded for resentencing.

  • Jones v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-03
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Court of Appeals
    Judge: Presiding Judge McFadden
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Viveca Famber (Attorney at Law), Austell, for appellant.
    for defendant: Paul Howard (District Attorney), Atlanta; David Getachew-Smith (Fulton County District Attorney's Office), Atlanta, for appellee.
    Case Number: A17A1053

    The evidence supported defendant's convictions for rape, aggravated child molestation, and incest for acts he committed against his niece, and the trial court was not required to conduct a competency hearing because defendant did not engage in any irrational behavior prior to the start of the trial, his demeanor did not exhibit incompetence, his attorney stated he was competent and there was no evidence of a prior medical opinion that his previous mental health diagnoses rendered him incompetent to stand trial.

  • Walker v. The State

    Publication Date: 2017-11-02
    Practice Area: Criminal Appeals | Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Court of Appeals
    Judge: Justice Grant
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Kelvin D. Walker, Pelham, for appellant.
    for defendant: Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr (Department of Law), Atlanta; Elizabeth A. Baker, Tracy Graham Lawson (Clayton County District Attorney's Office), Jonesboro, for appellee.
    Case Number: S17A1406

    The trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion for an out-of-time appeal because it was clear from the face of the record that his convictions and sentences were proper and because he had no constitutional right to the assistance of counsel in pursuing his motion for out-of-time appeal, there was no error in the trial court's denial of his motion seeking appointment of counsel.