Thomas v. State
Thomas v. State
Opinion of the Court
In a bench trial, appellant James Tyrone Thomas was found guilty of the malice murder of his girlfriend, Carrie Lee, and was sen
1. At the bench trial, the State presented evidence that, on November 6, 2000, appellant arrived at the Mitchell County Sheriffs office where he reported that he had just killed his girlfriend. After he was advised of his Miranda rights, he repeated the statement and gave his apartment key to the deputies to whom he made his statement. When they arrived at the apartment appellant shared with the victim, their infant son, and the victim’s two other children, they found the victim lying face down on the floor of the master bedroom, with an electrical extension cord looped twice around her neck and twisted around a broom handle. The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy testified the cord had been tightened around the victim’s neck by twisting the broom handle in the cord to the point that the cord was so embedded in the victim’s throat that it was difficult to cut the cord loose. The victim died due to ligature strangulation.
Appellant testified the victim threatened him with a kitchen knife after he said he was not going to work that morning and that he caught her knife-wielding hand, pushed her to the floor, and wrapped around her neck the extension cord she had over her shoulder, tightening it with a broom handle. When he got up and saw blood coming from the victim’s nose, he threw the knife out the apartment’s back door and went to the sheriff’s office. In rebuttal, the deputies testified that appellant had not told them about the knife when he reported the death, and that they had not found a knife when they searched the scene. The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979); McAllister v. State, 270 Ga. 224 (3) (507 SE2d 448) (1998).
2. Appellant contends the State did not present evidence that appellant acted with malice. OCGA § 16-5-1 (b) defines express malice as “that deliberate intention unlawfully to take the life of another human being which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof!,]” and provides that malice may be implied “where no con
Judgment affirmed.
The victim was killed on November 6, 2000, and appellant was arrested the same day. A true bill of indictment charging appellant with malice murder was returned on January 2, 2001. Appellant executed a written waiver of his right to a jury trial on April 12, and was tried in a bench trial on April 25. The trial concluded the same day with the trial court finding appellant guilty of malice murder and sentencing him to life imprisonment. Appellant filed a notice of appeal on May 22, 2001, and the appeal was docketed in this Court on August 20, 2001. It was submitted for decision on the briefs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- THOMAS v. State
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- 3 cases
- Status
- Published