Grell v. State, 291 Ga. 615

Grell was convicted of felony murder with aggravated assault of Brianna Morgan as the underlying crime, burglary of Edouard's home, five counts of possessing a firearm during the commission of a crime, and two other related aggravated assaults.
The victim Donny Edouard died from a gunshot wound in a second-story bedroom of his Gwinnett County home on July 11, 2008.
Morgan identified Grell as the man who accompanied Edouard to the home, entered the residence, and fled after gunshots were fired at her and later at Edouard.
Two firearm-possession convictions were vacated under OCGA § 16-11-106(b)(1) and subsections (2)-(5) due to multiple victims in a single spree.
One of the aggravated assault convictions for Morgan and one other firearm possession conviction were vacated because separate gunshots to Morgan did not constitute separate assaults under Coleman v. State.
Appellant challenged the conviction on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel, exclusion of a defense witness, and jury-deliberation instruction errors; the court affirmed most convictions and vacated several counts.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence for convictions	Grell contends evidence fails to prove felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, and firearm possession beyond a reasonable doubt.	State asserts sufficient evidence for most counts under Jackson v. Virginia; some counts must be vacated per statutory rules.	Evidence sufficient for most convictions; two firearm-possession counts and one aggravated assault vacated.
Exclusion of defense witness testimony	Defense argues excluded testimony of Haynie, who would corroborate a co-defendant's confession via third-party statements.	State contends the witness was unreliable and excluded under hearsay/reliability standards.	Trial court's exclusion not abuse of discretion; due process considerations did not require admission.
Jury deliberation instructions on Count 7	Appellant sought limiting Count 7 to murder only, not felony murder.	Appellant urged constrained deliberations; trial court refused to limit to one type of murder.	No error; jury instructed to consider separate and independent verdicts on each count.
Ineffective assistance of trial counsel	Counsel failed to prepare key witnesses and locate witnesses, and made prejudicial closing remarks.	State maintains speculative prejudice; no proof of reasonable probability of different outcome.	Partial merit; one ineffective-assistance claim fails; other challenges unproven; judgment affirmed in part and vacated in part.

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (sufficiency review standard)
State v. Marlowe, 277 Ga. 383 (Ga. 2003) (firearm possession counts with multiple victims; statutory framework)
Taylor v. State, 282 Ga. 693 (Ga. 2007) (limits on concurrent firearm-possession counts)
Coleman v. State, 286 Ga. 291 (Ga. 2009) (merger of multiple quick-succession wounds into a single aggravated assault)
Rice v. State, 243 Ga. App. 143 (Ga. App. 2000) (instructional fairness in multi-count deliberations)
Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284 (U.S. 1973) (due process exception to exclude hearsay when critical to defense)