Colton v. State, 292 Ga. 509

Colton was convicted after a jury trial of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery in the beating death of Shannon Blount.
On appeal Colton argued the trial court erred by admitting his confession without a voluntariness finding.
Facts show Blount was assaulted after leaving a party with Colton and others; Blount died from injuries, Colton was injured in a car crash nearby, and both were treated by the ambulance crew.
Evidence at trial supported the verdict beyond a reasonable doubt for all charged offenses.
The trial court admitted a non-testifying co-defendant’s custodial statement and noncustodial statements; Bruton issues were raised.
The court remanded for proper consideration of voluntariness of Colton’s confession; opinions regarding the admissibility of certain statements were addressed but final resolution depended on the remand.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Voluntariness of Colton's custodial confession	Colton argues no voluntariness finding.	State asserts admissibility notwithstanding	Remanded for voluntariness ruling
Admissibility of co-defendant's custodial statement under Bruton/Crawford	Statements implicating Colton were improperly admitted	Redacted or limited-use approaches suffice under Bruton	Error admitted; Crawford bars testimonial statements; remand for voluntariness
Admissibility of co-defendant's initial noncustodial statement to police	Noncustodial statement should be admissible per Johnson	Crawford makes testimonial statements inadmissible without cross-examination	Inadmissible testimonial statement; Johnson overruled; remand
Waiver of police officer's opinion on voluntariness	Issue not properly preserved as waived	No objection, so not appealable	Waived on appeal

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979) (sufficiency standard for evidence)
Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968) (confrontation clause; non-testifying co-defendant’s statement)
Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004) (testimonial statements barred without cross-examination)
Hanifa v. State, 269 Ga. 797 (1998) (Confrontation Clause admissibility when statement does not name defendant)
Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200 (1987) (redacted statements non-violation of Bruton with limiting instructions)
Gray v. Maryland, 523 U.S. 185 (1998) (incriminating inferential statements permissible when not direct references)
Johnson v. State, 275 Ga. 650 (2002) (precedent prior to Crawford regarding non-custodial co-defendant statements)
Sims v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 538 (1967) (voluntariness assessment of confessions)
Parker v. State, 255 Ga. 167 (1985) (remand for clarification on admissibility of statements)
Watson v. State, 278 Ga. 763 (2004) (Crawford applies to statements to police during investigation)