Dublin v. State, 302 Ga. 60

On Dec. 31, 2012 Terry Slack was shot and killed during what prosecution argued was an attempted robbery; Willie Dublin was tried with co-defendants Darnell Mitchell and Dewayne Reynolds.
Witnesses placed Dublin with Mitchell and Reynolds that night, and multiple witnesses heard the men discussing a robbery; Dublin admitted owning the gun used and disposing of it, denied planning a robbery, and claimed Reynolds fired the fatal shot.
Several witnesses (Reynolds’s wife Judy Cronan; Tonya Dupree; Kristina Watson; Terrence Redwine; Mitchell; Reynolds’s police interview) testified about pre- and post-shooting statements by the group.
Dublin was convicted of felony murder (predicated on aggravated assault), two aggravated-assault counts, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony; acquitted of malice murder.
Dublin appealed alleging: ineffective assistance for failing to object to hearsay and to a detective’s comment about noncooperation; erroneous admission of hearsay/other-acts evidence; denial of a mistrial after a co-defendant’s vague allusion to prior bad acts; and insufficiency of the evidence.

Issue	Dublin's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Admissibility of Cronan/Watson hearsay	Statements were inadmissible hearsay; no independent proof of a conspiracy	Statements were admissible under the co-conspirator exception; conspiracy proven by preponderance	Admissible under OCGA § 24-8-801(d)(2)(E); objection would have been futile, so no ineffective assistance
Admission of Dupree’s hearsay	Testimony lacked independent proof and reliability	Same co-conspirator rationale; Confrontation Clause inapplicable to nontestimonial co-conspirator statements	Admissible; Dublin’s challenge fails
Ineffective assistance for failure to object to detective’s comment that Dublin/Watson wouldn’t talk	Comment impermissibly commented on silence (Mallory) and counsel should have objected	Even if improper, any objection would not have changed outcome given other evidence	No prejudice shown under Strickland; claim fails
Mistrial for co-defendant’s allusion to prior robberies	Testimony referenced other bad acts and required mistrial	Trial court gave curative instruction to disregard and denied mistrial; discretion to deny	No abuse of discretion; curative instruction sufficient
Sufficiency of evidence	Exclude alleged inadmissible hearsay and find convictions unsupported	All admitted evidence (even if erroneously admitted) supports convictions; jury could find Dublin a party to the crime	Evidence legally sufficient to support convictions; convictions affirmed

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (establishes two-part ineffective assistance standard)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for reviewing sufficiency of evidence)
United States v. Hasner, 340 F.3d 1261 (11th Cir.) (proving conspiracy by preponderance for co-conspirator exception)
Mallory v. State, 261 Ga. 625 (prohibiting comments on a defendant’s silence under prior Georgia law)
Ventura v. State, 284 Ga. 215 (failure to pursue futile objection is not ineffective assistance)
Reynolds v. State, 299 Ga. 781 (addressed merger/sentencing treatment of related counts)
McClendon v. State, 299 Ga. 611 (confrontation/reliability analysis for nontestimonial co-conspirator statements)
Herrington v. State, 300 Ga. 149 (a defendant can be guilty as a party without personally firing a weapon)
Braithwaite v. State, 275 Ga. 884 (constructive possession as a party supports firearm-possession conviction)
Cowart v. State, 294 Ga. 333 (review considers all evidence admitted at trial)