Cooks v. State, 792 S.E.2d 389

On Jan 5–6, 2005, 19-year-old Quentin Cooks took a .44 revolver from 15-year-old Shawn Powe; Powe later searched for Cooks and was shot and killed near his apartment complex.
Cooks initially told police he sold the gun; he later admitted to his mother that he shot Powe to "protect his family," fled arrest, and was captured days later.
Cooks was indicted on malice murder, two felony-murder counts, aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a firearm during a felony, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; tried in April 2007 and convicted on all counts.
The jury’s felony-murder verdicts were vacated by operation of law; the trial court merged aggravated assault into malice murder and also (erroneously) merged the felon-in-possession count into a vacated felony-murder count, so it failed to impose sentence on the felon-in-possession conviction.
Cooks appealed raising ineffective assistance of counsel (failure to seek bifurcation of the felon-in-possession count) and exclusion of evidence of the victim’s prior violent acts against third parties.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Cooks)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
Sufficiency of evidence	Conviction not supported	Evidence supports convictions	Evidence sufficient; convictions affirmed
Sentencing on felon-in-possession count	Trial court properly merged and need not resentence	Trial court erroneously merged a count that was vacated; sentencing needed	Vacated portion of sentence; remanded to sentence felon-in-possession count
Ineffective assistance for not moving to bifurcate felon-in-possession	Counsel deficient for failing to sever, causing jury to learn of prior conviction and prejudice	Bifurcation would have been denied because felon-in-possession could underlie felony-murder and malice charge allowed lesser-included findings; motion would be meritless	No ineffective assistance; failure to move was not deficient because motion lacked merit
Exclusion of evidence of victim’s prior violent acts	Trial court wrongly barred specific-act evidence showing Powe’s violent history	Proffered evidence lacked competent proof of specific violent acts; general reputation/other evidence was admitted	No error; trial court correctly excluded unsupported specific-act evidence but allowed reputation evidence

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (evidence must permit a rational trier of fact to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (ineffective assistance two-prong test: performance and prejudice)
Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365 (prejudice burden for counsel-based claims; standards for counsel performance)
Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362 (prejudice standard clarification)
Brown v. State, 295 Ga. 804 (bifurcation rule for felon-in-possession counts and relation to felony-murder)
Hulett v. State, 296 Ga. 49 (resentencing when trial court misapplies merger following vacated counts)
Moss v. State, 298 Ga. 613 (failure to make meritless motion is not ineffective assistance)
Chandler v. State, 261 Ga. 402 (conditions for admitting victim’s specific prior violent acts under former Evidence Code)
Laster v. State, 268 Ga. 172 (prior violent acts must be proved by competent evidence)
Jones v. State, 265 Ga. 138 (effect of felon status on lesser-included felony murder findings)
Lawler v. State, 276 Ga. 229 (rulings on admissibility are moot if evidence not offered at trial)
Mohamud v. State, 297 Ga. 532 (new Evidence Code limits victim character evidence to reputation/opinion, not specific acts)
Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (merger principles for aggravated assault and malice murder)