Brown v. State, 303 Ga. 158

On Feb. 2, 2014, Melvin Brown Jr. and Javious Tucker engaged in a heated dispute at a party; the confrontation continued outside and down a steep hill.
Tucker and his passenger Cyntrelis Boggs followed Brown in Tucker’s car; witnesses described threats, a tire iron, and visible agitation.
Brown retrieved a handgun and fired multiple times as Tucker’s car approached over the hill; Tucker died at the scene and Boggs was wounded.
Forensics recovered nine .40 cal shell casings fired from a Smith & Wesson; a .38 pistol was recovered from Tucker’s car; Brown’s brother had recently bought a .40 that was missing after the shooting.
The State introduced Brown’s 2006 guilty pleas to four counts of aggravated assault (other-acts evidence) to show motive, intent, plan, and absence of mistake; Brown asserted self-defense at trial.
The jury convicted Brown of multiple counts, including malice murder; the Georgia Supreme Court reversed because admitting the 404(b) other-acts evidence was reversible error.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of other-acts evidence under OCGA § 24-4-404(b)	Other acts show motive, intent, plan, and absence of mistake or accident	404(b) evidence was irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial (propensity evidence)	Court: admission was error — other acts were more prejudicial than probative and not necessary to prove intent or plan
Whether other-acts evidence was admissible to rebut accident/mistake theory	Not explicitly disputed by Brown; State offered it for absence of mistake	Brown did not claim accident/mistake at trial	Court: accident/mistake was not at issue, so this ground for admission was improper
Admissibility of other-acts evidence to prove plan/common scheme	Other acts show a course of conduct indicating a larger plan to respond to provocations by shooting	Brown: prior assaults are temporally/remotely related and show only propensity	Court: 2006 assaults did not show a larger plan or are so connected to charged offense; admission for plan was improper
Harmless error analysis	State: evidence of guilt (forensics and circumstances) sufficient; any error harmless	Brown: prior-act testimony likely affected verdict given conflicting self-defense evidence	Court: error was not harmless — not highly probable verdict unaffected; convictions reversed

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of evidence)
Parks v. State, 300 Ga. 303 (adoption of Eleventh Circuit three-part 404(b) test; balancing under OCGA § 24-4-403)
Olds v. State, 299 Ga. 65 (probative value depends on need; Rule 403 analysis)
Hood v. State, 299 Ga. 95 (Rule 403 exclusion as remedy and caution against cumulative/prejudicial evidence)
United States v. Beechum, 582 F.2d 898 (danger that extrinsic offense causes jury to punish for uncharged acts)
United States v. Krezdorn, 639 F.2d 1327 (other acts to show plan — requires logical link to larger goal)
United States v. Commanche, 577 F.3d 1261 (other-acts limits when self-defense is asserted)