Brewer v. State, 301 Ga. 819

On December 13, 2013, Brewer shot and killed Larry Strickland after an argument about $100 Brewer had borrowed; eyewitnesses testified Strickland was unarmed and Brewer shot him while pursuing him with Edmondson’s handgun on a table. Brewer fled and was arrested ten days later. Brewer testified self‑defense, claiming he felt a gun under Strickland’s shirt.
A jury convicted Brewer of malice murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and related counts; Brewer was sentenced to life without parole plus consecutive firearm time. Brewer’s felony murder conviction was vacated by operation of law; aggravated assault merged for sentencing.
At trial, the court had precluded testimony that Brewer borrowed money to pay bond on an unrelated misdemeanor. During trial, Officer Ham testified the police were asked about using “booking information” to locate Brewer; Brewer moved for a mistrial. The court offered a curative instruction but defense counsel declined it; the mistrial motion was denied.
Brewer alleged ineffective assistance because counsel declined the curative instruction. Counsel testified the decision was strategic to avoid highlighting the booking reference to the jury.
Brewer sought to introduce testimony that Strickland had arranged a murder five years earlier to support self‑defense; the trial court sustained the State’s objection and excluded that testimony. Brewer argued this exclusion was reversible error.

Issue	Brewer's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence	Evidence was insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (implied)	Eyewitness testimony identified Brewer firing at an unarmed Strickland and stealing money from him; supports convictions	Evidence sufficient; conviction affirmed (Jackson standard)
Motion for mistrial after witness referenced “booking information”	Reference injected bad character/evidence of prior criminality; mistrial required	Reference was inadvertent; curative instruction offered; no prejudice shown	Denial of mistrial not an abuse of discretion; Brewer waived complaint by declining curative instruction (Rucker/Bunnell/Pickren)
Ineffective assistance for declining curative instruction	Counsel’s refusal was deficient and prejudicial	Counsel’s decision was strategic to avoid emphasizing reference; within reasonable professional judgment	No ineffective assistance; strategy was presumptively reasonable (Strickland; McNair; Kitchens)
Exclusion of testimony about alleged prior violent act by victim	Excluding evidence of the victim’s prior violent act deprived Brewer of evidence supporting self‑defense	The testimony lacked specifics and was properly excluded; even if error, overwhelming evidence of guilt made any error harmless	No reversible error; exclusion (if erroneous) was harmless given overwhelming evidence (Smith)

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of the evidence)
Rucker v. State, 293 Ga. 116 (abuse‑of‑discretion review for mistrial denial; factors to consider)
Bunnell v. State, 292 Ga. 253 (curative instructions adequate for inadvertent references to prior convictions)
Pickren v. State, 272 Ga. 421 (defendant may not complain after declining curative instruction)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (two‑prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
McNair v. State, 296 Ga. 181 (trial tactics rarely constitute ineffective assistance unless patently unreasonable)
Kitchens v. State, 289 Ga. 242 (strategic decisions fall within reasonable professional conduct)
Smith v. State, 299 Ga. 424 (harmless‑error analysis under Georgia Evidence Code)