Cain v. State, 300 Ga. 614

Victim Calvin Davis was shot and killed on June 19, 2010; Cain was indicted for malice murder, felony murder (while committing aggravated assault), and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
On the night before the shooting Cain went with neighbor Yoshanda Mitchell and Andre Wooden to motels where they encountered the victim; Cain left briefly, returned claiming money was missing, and asked to search the victim’s room.
Inside the victim’s motel room, Cain went into the bathroom, emerged with a gun, demanded money, fired five shots, and one bullet killed the victim; lack of stippling showed the victim was at least 18 inches from the gun when shot.
Mitchell and Wooden gave eyewitness testimony placing Cain as the shooter; Cain testified he shot in self-defense during an attempted robbery.
At trial Cain was acquitted of malice murder but convicted of felony murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime; he received life without parole plus five years.
Cain appealed, contesting sufficiency of the evidence, an evidentiary hearsay ruling, and ineffective assistance of counsel; the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed.

Issue	Cain's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence for felony murder and firearm possession	Evidence insufficient; testimony circumstantial and did not exclude other hypotheses	Eyewitness testimony (Mitchell, Wooden) directly proved Cain shot victim; jury may reject Cain's self-defense claim	Affirmed: evidence sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia
Whether trial court erred by sustaining hearsay objection to Cain testifying about Mitchell’s statements	Exclusion prevented proof Cain went to party, not to commit crime	Objection was properly sustained; defense failed to object at trial so claim waived	Waived for failure to object; no plain-error review applicable
Ineffective assistance for not objecting on foundation to prosecutor's questions about Cain’s mother calling police	Counsel should have objected under Clark/Medlock to require a reliable basis for the prosecutor’s inquiry	Prosecutor had police report (provided in discovery) containing the mother’s statement, supplying good-faith foundation	No ineffective assistance; objection would have been meritless
Applicability of former OCGA § 24-4-6 (circumstantial evidence rule)	Cain argued conviction impermissible under circumstantial-evidence-only standard	Case included direct eyewitness testimony, so former § 24-4-6 inapplicable	Affirmed: evidence was direct, not wholly circumstantial

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of evidence)
Hill v. State, 297 Ga. 675 (witness credibility is jury province; circumstantial-evidence rule inapplicable where direct evidence exists)
Durham v. State, 292 Ga. 239 (failure to object at trial waives evidentiary claim under former Evidence Code)
Grant v. State, 295 Ga. 126 (meritless objections do not establish ineffective assistance)
State v. Clark, 258 Ga. 464 (prosecutor may ask character witnesses about reported bad acts if reliable basis exists)
Medlock v. State, 264 Ga. 697 (prosecution’s ability to question character witnesses about arrests/uncharged acts when foundation exists)