Booth v. State, 301 Ga. 678

Defendant Delroy Booth was indicted for malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, and aggravated assault for the beating, sexual assault, and death of Shantle Vason in February 2007.
Victim suffered extensive blunt-force head injuries, rectal/genital injuries, and a feces-covered candle was found; rectal semen matched Booth on a 16-locus DNA profile; vaginal sample showed mixed/partial profiles.
Booth claimed he discovered Vason injured and attempted aid; police found signs of a struggle and Booth had Vason’s blood on his shirt and injuries to his hand.
Booth pleaded incompetency; a special jury found him competent after the trial court read the indictment at the competency hearing.
At trial the State introduced prior-acts evidence of Booth’s assaults on ex-girlfriends; Booth was convicted of malice murder and related counts (acquitted of aggravated sodomy); trial court "merged" felony-murder counts into the malice murder sentence.
On appeal Booth challenged (1) reading the indictment at the competency hearing, (2) certain prosecutor closing arguments about DNA timing, (3) admission of other-acts evidence under OCGA § 24-4-404(b), and (4) the court’s treatment of felony-murder counts; the court affirmed except it vacated the purported merger of felony-murder counts.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (State)	Defendant's Argument (Booth)	Held
Reading indictment to competency jury	Relevant to whether defendant understands nature/gravity of charges	Reading charges was prejudicial and irrelevant to competency	Affirmed—no plain error; indictment relevant to competency determination
Prosecutor remarks on DNA timing in closing	Reasonable inference from expert testimony that a full rectal profile indicated a more recent contribution	Mischaracterized expert and improperly suggested DNA can be "time-stamped"	Affirmed—remarks were permissible inferences from Dr. Hampikian’s testimony and evidence
Admission of other-acts (prior assaults) under Rule 404(b)	Other-acts showed intent similar to charged aggravated assault and were admissible for intent, not propensity	Other-acts were only simple battery and not probative of required intent for malice murder	Affirmed—other-acts relevant to intent for aggravated assault (first prong satisfied); no challenge preserved on prejudice prong
Treatment of felony-murder counts at sentencing	No remand necessary because predicate felonies were not separately charged/verdicts not returned	Trial court improperly "merged" felony murder into malice murder; requests remand for resentencing	Vacated the merger nomenclature (felony-murder counts vacated by operation of law); no resentencing remand required because no separate predicate convictions

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (review of sufficiency of evidence)
State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. 29 (plain-error test application in criminal appeals)
Lewis v. State, 279 Ga. 69 (competency standard)
Waldrip v. State, 267 Ga. 739 (relevance of charges in competency proceedings)
Olds v. State, 299 Ga. 65 (Rule 404(b) and relevance analysis)
State v. Jones, 297 Ga. 156 (standard of review and Rule 404(b) test)
Bradshaw v. State, 296 Ga. 650 (other-acts admissible for intent)
Favors v. State, 296 Ga. 842 (felony murder vacated, not merged into malice murder)
Atkinson v. State, 301 Ga. 518 (sentencing implications when predicate felonies uncharged)
Beechum v. United States, 582 F.2d 898 (similarity requirement for other-acts relevance)
Dothard v. United States, 666 F.2d 498 (extrinsic act similarity discussion)
Covington v. United States, 565 F.3d 1336 (Rule 404(b) prohibits pure propensity evidence)