Thomas v. State
Thomas v. State
Opinion of the Court
Ben Thomas appeals his conviction for the sale of cocaine. He alleges that the trial court erred by denying his motion to disclose the identity of a confidential informant and by limiting the scope of his cross-examination of a police officer. He also asserts that the evidence presented at his trial is insufficient to sustain the verdict. Held:
1. Although Thomas contends that he was entitled to know the identity of a confidential informant because the confidential informant was allegedly the only person other than the appellant and the undercover officer who witnessed the transaction, the transcript shows that three other witnesses testified no such sale was made. Thus, the informant was not “ ‘the only witness in a position to amplify or contradict the testimony’ of the appellant and the police officer.” Moore v. State, 187 Ga. App. 387, 391 (370 SE2d 511). Therefore, neither disclosure of the informant’s identity nor a Moore in-camera hearing was required. See Ponder v. State, 191 Ga. App. 346, 347 (381 SE2d 534).
2. Thomas also asserts that the trial court erred by limiting his cross-examination of a sheriff’s investigator about the investigator’s knowledge of charges pending against the confidential informant. See OCGA § 24-9-64. Although the trial court had ordered the prosecution to reveal any deals with the informant, and the transcript shows that the investigator had testified there was no deal, Thomas sought to cross-examine the investigator about why the informant was “trying to make a drug deal” because that information would go “to the motive for doing what he was doing and his reliability and that sort of thing.” After considering this argument, the trial court found the testimony Thomas sought would not be relevant: “I can’t follow the connection here.” As the sheriff’s investigator had previously testified there was no deal with the informant, the information sought had no relevance to the issues in the trial (see OCGA §§ 24-2-1 and 24-2-2). Further, there was nothing to indicate that the investigator was competent to testify about the informant’s subjective motivation for assisting the police. More significantly, however, the admissibility of this evidence lies within the discretion of the trial judge, and as there is no evidence that he abused his discretion in this case, we find no error. Butler v. State, 173 Ga. App. 168 (325 SE2d 835); Lewis v. State, 158 Ga. App. 586 (281 SE2d 331).
3. Thomas’ last enumeration of error asserts that the evidence
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.