Bostic v. State, 294 Ga. 845

Patterson and others were shot at a pizza parlor; Patterson died and Robinson was injured.
Bostic and Mathews drove to the scene; Bostic later boasted to a roommate and Mathews’s girlfriend that he had shot someone.
Bostic was convicted of malice murder, multiple aggravated assaults, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime; felony murder conviction was vacated.
Indictment included numerous aggravated assaults; some named victims did not testify at trial.
Disputed issues included self-defense justification, sufficiency of evidence, admissibility of consciousness-of-guilt statements, and trial counsel conduct.
Bostic appealed raising several sufficiency, evidentiary, and trial-management arguments.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Evidence sufficiency and self-defense	Bostic asserts insufficient evidence and claims self-defense justification.	State contends jury could reasonably credit testimony and circumstantial evidence.	Evidence supported guilt; justification was a jury question.
Variance in victim name for Hollinger	Indictment named Latana Hollinger; trial identified Latavia Hollinger.	Names refer to same individual; non-fatal variance not fatal.	Variance did not defeat sufficiency; same person.
Testimony of Mills and Meyers without testimony	No direct victim testimony for two aggravated assaults.	Victim's state of mind can be inferred circumstantially; testimony not required.	Circumstantial evidence supported apprehension elements.
Admission of inmate consciousness-of-guilt testimony	Statement is hearsay, prejudicial, and irrelevant to charged offenses.	Admissions of a party opponent are admissible; relevant to consciousness of guilt.	Admissible; probative value not outweighed by prejudice.
Voluntary manslaughter instruction sua sponte	Court should have instructed on voluntary manslaughter.	Withdrawal of the request and defense theory did not require sua sponte instruction.	No sua sponte instruction required.

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. (1979)) (sufficiency standard; deference to jury verdict)
Tarvin v. State, 277 Ga. 509 (Ga. 2004) (variance between indictment and proof acceptable when refer to same person)
Howard v. State, 288 Ga. 741 (Ga. 2011) (circumstantial proof of intent or state of mind permissible)
Lewis v. State, 293 Ga. 110 (Ga. 2013) (admission of consciousness-of-guilt evidence proper)
Sifuentes v. State, 293 Ga. 441 (Ga. 2013) (probative value vs. prejudice; evidentiary rulings reviewed for abuse of discretion)
Robinson v. State, 277 Ga. 75 (Ga. 2003) (trial strategy and appellate review of ineffective assistance)