Alvelo v. State
290 Ga. 609
| Ga. | 2012Background
- Appellant Alvelo was convicted of malice murder of Walter Cooper, aggravated assaults and false imprisonments of Williams and Freitag, possession of a knife during a crime, and concealing a death.
- Cooper’s body was found under a mattress on the front porch; pathologist attributed death to multiple sharp force injuries from weapons including a knife and hatchet.
- Witness Williams described Alvelo's violent attack with a hatchet on Williams and Freitag in the house; Freitag escaped through a window during the struggle.
- Alvelo gave police a recorded interview claiming self-defense; investigators found blood-spatter and transfer patterns supporting staged shooting events and disposal of Cooper’s body.
- Jury found Alvelo guilty on all counts; life sentence for malice murder, with concurrent and consecutive sentences for other offenses; felony murder conviction vacated by operation of law.
- On remand, the trial court denied a new-trial motion, and Alvelo appealed again seeking adjustments under the weight-of-evidence standard.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sufficiency of the evidence | Alvelo | State | Evidence sufficient for all convictions |
| Merger of aggravated assault into malice murder | Alvelo | State | Aggravated assault merged; vacate conviction and remand for resentencing |
| Insanity defense standard | Alvelo | State | Insanity defense upheld by jury; trial court not error on sanity judgment |
| Admission of photographs | Alvelo | State | Trial court did not abuse discretion; photographs admissible |
| Voluntary intoxication and no duty to retreat | Alvelo | State | No plain error; no duty-to-retreat charge not required absent sole defense; voluntary intoxication charge not plain error |
Key Cases Cited
- Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. Supreme Court 1979) (sufficiency review for criminal convictions)
- Culpepper v. State, 289 Ga. 736 (Ga. 2011) (aggravated assault may merge into murder unless independent feat exists)
- Mikell v. State, 286 Ga. 722 (Ga. 2010) (separate aggravated assault conviction requires independent act)
- Coleman v. State, 286 Ga. 291 (Ga. 2009) (independent aggravated assault exception to merger)
- Drinkard v. Walker, 281 Ga. 211 (Ga. 2006) (OCGA merger rule interpretation)
- Rodriguez v. State, 271 Ga. 40 (Ga. 1999) (sanity and reasonable doubt framework for insanity verdicts)
- Edmonds v. State, 275 Ga. 450 (Ga. 2002) (jurisdiction on self-defense and justification instructions)
- Floyd v. State, 272 Ga. 65 (Ga. 2000) (photographs admissibility and relevance to wounds)
- Crozier v. State, 263 Ga. 866 (Ga. 1994) (pre-autopsy photos admissible to illustrate wounds and location)
- Respress v. State, 249 Ga. 731 (Ga. 1982) (photos of victim's wounds relevance to justification)