Davis v. State, 301 Ga. 397

Background

Davis was indicted for malice murder, two counts of felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony arising from the June 2011 shooting death of Angelo Larocca; malice murder was nolle prossed before trial.
Evidence showed Davis sold Xanax to the victim, communicated with the victim the day of the shooting, and was linked to the scene by DNA on a cigarette butt and 9mm shell casings; Mosley (an associate) admitted shooting someone and used a gang moniker in texts after the murder.
Davis voluntarily met with police, rode unhandcuffed to the station, gave a videotaped interview (later invoked counsel and left), and provided his cell phone twice; officers later seized the phone and obtained a warrant.
At trial the State presented gang-affiliation evidence about Mosley, testimony about prior possession of a 9mm, phone records, and expert testimony explaining slang.
The jury convicted Davis of two counts of felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and one count of possession of a firearm during commission of a felony; the trial court merged/duplicated some sentences and later the appellate court vacated one felony-murder sentence and remanded for resentencing.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence	Convictions unsupported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt	Evidence tied Davis to the scene and to the victim by texts, DNA, shells, admissions	Sufficient to support guilt as direct actor or party to the crime (Jackson applied)
Admission of Mosley’s gang evidence	Gang affiliation was irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial	Relevant to identity of Mosley in post-shooting communications and foreseeable context of the robbery/murder	Court did not abuse discretion admitting gang evidence under OCGA §§ 24-4-401, 24-4-403
Similar-transaction evidence (9mm, prior statements)	Too remote, prejudicial, and irrelevant	Showed prior possession/common weapon and context of events	Any error was harmless given strong evidence of guilt; admission upheld as non-prejudicial
Morning-of-trial continuance to retain new counsel	Davis had a constitutional right to counsel of choice and showed reasonable diligence	Proposed attorney only gave conditional agreement; both sides ready; denial within trial court’s discretion	Denial was not an abuse of discretion (Flowers standard)
Variance between indictment and trial on firearm-in-possession count	Count 5 improperly allowed conviction on a different underlying murder theory than indicted	Redacted indictment charged possession during commission of "murder" and jury was instructed only on felony murder	No preserved variance claim; jury was instructed consistent with redacted indictment, so no due process violation; conviction sustained but one felony-murder sentence vacated by operation of law
Ineffective assistance of counsel (multiple bases)	Counsel failed to suppress statement, cell phone evidence, phone records, and expert qualification	Statements were voluntary; phone given voluntarily and later seized pending warrant; Davis lacked standing to suppress records; expert properly qualified; objections would have been futile or nonprejudicial	Strickland not met: counsel not deficient or no prejudice shown; claims fail

Key Cases Cited

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (conviction must be supported by evidence sufficient to permit a rational trier of fact to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt)
Williams v. State, 261 Ga. 640 (similar-transaction evidence standard)
Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (2014) (search of cell phone digital contents requires warrant; discussed seizure pending warrant)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (ineffective assistance two-prong test)
Flowers v. State, 275 Ga. 592 (right to counsel of choice and continuance discretion)
Cowart v. State, 294 Ga. 333 (vacatur of duplicate felony-murder verdicts involving same victim)