Hawkins v. State, 316 Ga. App. 415

Hawkins and Woods were convicted of three counts of armed robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime for a Waffle House robbery involving three victims.
Co-defendant White pled guilty and testified against Hawkins and Woods; gun and cash linked to the robbers were recovered.
Law enforcement recovered the cook’s wallet, cash, a handgun, and a crowbar; Ward was arrested the following day.
Ash, an investigator for the district attorney, testified, and defense claimed bias and sought to cross-examine about interactions with family members.
The defense sought mistrials over Ash’s conduct and regarding a sequestration violation; the court issued limiting instructions instead.
The appellate court affirms the convictions after reviewing the admissibility and handling of the investigator’s testimony, cross-examination, custodial statements, and sequestration issues.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Cross-examination restriction of investigator bias	Hawkins argues bias impeachment was improperly curtailed	Hawkins contends cross-examination should reveal bias	Harmless error; substantial evidence supported the verdict
Mistrial due to Ash's gang-sign remark	Hawkins/Woods claim mistrial was required for impropriety	Court properly denied mistrial; instruction to disregard was sufficient	Not reversible error; instruction adequate
Evidence of drug use as res gestae	Evidence of cocaine/marijuana use was improper character evidence	Evidence was admissible as part of res gestae and state of mind	Admissible as res gestae; not improper character evidence
Woods’s custodial statement and Miranda waiver	Statement should be excluded for lack of valid waiver	Waiver and Miranda warnings were properly administered; no violation	Statement properly admitted; waiver deemed valid
Sequestration violation remedy	ADA violated sequestration rule; mistrial warranted	Violation affects credibility, not admissibility; mistrial not required	Mistrial not required; remedy was credibility instruction

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (jury sufficiency standard: substantial evidence standard)
Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673 (U.S. 1986) (harmless-error analysis for confrontation-clause violations)
Gardner v. State, 273 Ga. 809 (Ga. 2001) (mistrial judgment reviewed for abuse of discretion; credibility and evidence factors)
Ramirez v. State, 279 Ga. 569 (Ga. 2005) (sequestration-violation credibility remedy; weight of evidence considerations)
Brown v. Baskin, 286 Ga. 681 (Ga. 2010) (harmless error and cross-examination sufficiency analysis)
Robinson v. State, 286 Ga. 42 (Ga. 2009) (clear-on-question invocation of counsel during custodial interrogation)
Fitz v. State, 275 Ga. 349 (Ga. 2002) (Miranda waiver clarity and invocation standards)
Jordan v. State, 267 Ga. 442 (Ga. 1997) (clarification of waivers and continuing interrogation after ambiguity)