Hall v. State
Hall v. State
Opinion of the Court
William Demetrious Hall challenges his convictions for two counts of aggravated assault (OCGA § 16-5-21 (a) (2)), one count of armed robbery (OCGA § 16-8-41), two counts of forgery in the first degree (OCGA § 16-9-1), and one count of possession of a firearm during commission of a crime (OCGA § 16-11-106). We affirm.
On appeal from a criminal conviction, “ ‘the evidence must be
Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, Singleton v. State, 231 Ga. App. 694 (1) (500 SE2d 411) (1998), the evidence shows that Shanta Patel and ten-year-old Neila Mansure were preparing to depart a Cairo grocery store in the early evening of October 20, 2000, when they were approached by an individual wearing a Halloween mask and brandishing a handgun. The child, the store owner’s daughter, testified that the perpetrator began hitting her aunt, Ms. Patel,
In testimony given on his own behalf, the defendant denied the charges against him. However, in doing so, the defendant admitted touching the vehicle in issue, explaining that the day before the robbery he had been standing next to the vehicle as he “scratched” lot
1. In two enumerations of error the defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and contends that his motion for directed verdict as to Count 2 (aggravated assault upon Shanta Patel) should have been granted. We disagree. The evidence was sufficient to authorize the jury to find the defendant guilty of the offenses charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, supra; see Favors v. State, 238 Ga. App. 234, 235 (1) (518 SE2d 444) (1999) (“If a deadly weapon is used to place another in fear of receiving a violent injury, the offense is elevated to aggravated assault. [Cit.]”); Pope v. State, 179 Ga. App. 739, 741 (1) (347 SE2d 703) (1986) (forgery in first degree as committed by one making a writing purporting to be the writing of another); Parker v. State, 249 Ga. App. 509, 510-511 (1) (548 SE2d 475) (2001) (evidentiary sufficiency as to armed robbery by possession of firearm during commission of crime).
2. In a final claim of error, the defendant contends that the superior court erred in recharging the jury as to the form of the verdict in the event it found the defendant guilty on all counts, arguing that doing so gave undue emphasis to the evidence of defendant’s guilt. After instructing the jury that the purpose of its recharge as to the form of the verdict was to correct for an omission in its original charge thereon rather than to emphasize such portions of the original charge as would be reread in doing so, the superior court recharged the jury:
If you find the defendant not guilty on all counts the form of your verdict would be: We the jury, find the defendant not guilty. Now, should you find the defendant guilty on one or more counts and not guilty on one or more counts, you should specify in your verdict whether you find the defendant guilty on each of the six counts. In other words, you have got to deal with each of the six counts separately, if you don’t — if you find some guilty and some not guilty. If you find the defendant guilty on al[l] counts, the form of your verdict would be: We, the jury find the defendant guilty.
The superior court properly recharged the jury as to a matter it had omitted from its original charge. While there is some evidence of confusion arising out of obvious misstatement, read in its totality and in light of the original charge, Taylor v. State, 195 Ga. App. 314-315 (1)
Judgment affirmed.
The record shows that Ms. Patel spoke no English and did not testify.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.