Durden v. State, 318 Ga. 729

Devin Durden was indicted and convicted for felony murder, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm in connection with the 2016 shooting death of taxi driver Dewayne Chronister in Muscogee County, Georgia.
Co-defendants Screws and Thomas pleaded to lesser charges and testified against Durden in exchange for plea deals, implicating Durden as the shooter.
Key evidence included testimony from Screws and Thomas, taxi company call and location records tied to Thomas's phone, and surveillance footage from a gas station and the crime scene.
Detective Carter, a lead investigator, also testified about the identification of Durden in surveillance footage based on clothing and accessories recovered from Durden’s residence.
Durden was sentenced to life for felony murder, plus consecutive sentences for armed robbery and firearm possession. He appealed, alleging trial court errors in admitting identification testimony and failing to provide appropriate jury instructions.

Issue	Plaintiff’s Argument	Defendant’s (State’s) Argument	Held
Detective’s identification testimony	Carter’s identification of Durden on surveillance was improper under Georgia Rule 701(a) (lay opinion)	Any error was harmless as other witnesses properly identified Durden; Carter’s was cumulative	Even if error, harmless as testimony was cumulative of co-defendants’ proper identifications
Failure to give accomplice corroboration jury instruction	Court’s failure to instruct on accomplice corroboration (while giving single witness sufficiency charge) was plain error	Any error harmless as accomplice testimony mutually corroborated and supported by other evidence	Error, but not plain error; outcome wouldn’t plausibly change given mutual corroboration and ample evidence
Cumulative error	Combined effect of errors was prejudicial, warranting reversal	Errors, if any, were harmless and didn’t influence the trial outcome	Harmless; cumulative effect insufficient for reversal
Merger of convictions	(Not raised by Durden)	Armed robbery should merge into felony murder conviction	Court vacated separate armed robbery conviction as a clear merger error

Washington v. State, 312 Ga. 495 (plain error test applied to trial error)
Cooper v. State, 317 Ga. 676 (distinguishing lay opinion and factual testimony)
Glenn v. State, 306 Ga. 550 (standards for admissibility of lay opinion identification testimony)
Grier v. State, 313 Ga. 236 (harmlessness where improper evidence is duplicative)
State v. Johnson, 305 Ga. 237 (necessity of accomplice corroboration instruction in certain cases)
Allen v. State, 307 Ga. 707 (proper merger of predicate felonies into felony murder)