Jackson v. State
Jackson v. State
Opinion of the Court
Appellant Lavoris Jackson was tried jointly with Ramel Brown,
1. Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the convictions. He argues that because the evidence established that the victim died as a result of a shotgun wound, and no evidence was presented that he fired a shotgun at the victim, he could not be found guilty of the crimes charged. He also argues that even though two witnesses testified they saw appellant holding a handgun, only one witness testified consistently with her earlier statement that appellant fired the handgun. That witness also testified that an unknown male leaning out of a truck fired shots from a shotgun. While acknowledging that the credibility of witnesses is a matter solely within the province of the jury, appellant nevertheless asserts that the totality of the evidence was insufficient to permit the jury to find appellant guilty, as charged in the indictment, of murder "by shooting [the victim] with a shotgun," or guilty of felony murder or aggravated assault with a shotgun because the evidence showed only that he fired a handgun, whereas his co-defendant fired the shotgun.
Appellant ignores that sufficient evidence was presented to support his convictions, at least as a party to the crimes charged. See OCGA § 16-2-20. The trial judge properly instructed the jury on the law of party to a crime and mere presence. While proof of shared criminal intent with the actual perpetrator of the alleged criminal act is necessary to be convicted as a party to a crime, such intent may be inferred from the defendant's conduct before, during, and after the crime. See Grant v. State ,
2. The indictment charged appellant with murder as well as felony murder for causing the victim's death "by shooting him with a shotgun ...." The evidence was sufficient to show that appellant's co-defendant was the party who actually shot the victim with a shotgun, whereas it showed that appellant, standing nearby, shot the victim with a handgun. As noted above, the evidence was also sufficient to support the appellant's conviction as a party to the crime of shooting the victim with a shotgun and killing him. Nevertheless, appellant asserts he was entitled to a jury instruction on proximate causation, which was not given. Acknowledging that he did not request such an instruction or raise an objection on this ground to the jury instruction that was given, appellant argues the trial court committed plain error by failing to give an instruction on proximate cause. Appellant further acknowledges that to meet the burden of showing plain error, he must demonstrate that the instruction was erroneous, that it was obviously so, and that the error likely affected the outcome of the proceedings. See Alvelo v. State ,
When considering whether error exists in the instructions to the jury, this Court considers the instructions as a whole. Sapp v. State ,
was sufficient to inform the jury that, in order to convict, it had to determine [appellant] caused or was a party in the causing of [the victim's] death, and thus no error is shown by the trial court's failure to give a charge on proximate cause. See Pennie v. State ,292 Ga. 249 , 252 (2),736 S.E.2d 433 (2013).
Flournoy v. State ,
Judgment affirmed.
All the Justices concur.
This Court affirmed co-defendant Brown's convictions in Brown v. State ,
The crimes occurred on September 21, 2012. On February 26, 2013, a Fulton County grand jury returned an indictment charging appellant with criminal street gang activity, malice murder, felony murder (aggravated assault by shooting the victim with a shotgun), felony murder (possession of a firearm by a convicted felon), aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (a handgun), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Following a jury trial conducted between March 3, 2014 and March 7, 2014, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts. Appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment for malice murder and fifteen consecutive years for criminal street gang activity. In addition, appellant was given a five-year suspended sentence for the guilty verdict for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and five-year sentence for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, to be served concurrently with the sentence for criminal street gang activity and murder. The guilty verdicts for felony murder were vacated by operation of law, and the remaining guilty verdict for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon was merged for purposes of sentencing. Appellant filed a timely motion for new trial on March 11, 2014, which was later amended. Following a hearing, the trial court granted the motion as to the guilty verdict for criminal street gang activity. Thereafter, the trial court granted the prosecutor's motion to enter a nolle prosequi order for that charge. In response to a motion for clarification of the order on appellant's motion for new trial, the trial court entered an order clarifying that the motion for new trial was denied as to all counts other than the guilty verdict for criminal street gang activity. Appellant filed a timely notice of appeal and this case was docketed to the term of court beginning in December 2017. The case was submitted for decision on the briefs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JACKSON v. The STATE.
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published