Heatherly v. the State, 336 Ga. App. 875

Robert Wayne Heatherly, Jr., a third-shift supervisor at Dalton Paper Products, was accused of providing parts to employee Donald Malone, who sold them as scrap.
Malone was interviewed by police, confessed to selling the missing parts, and implicated Heatherly; receipts for the scrap sales were in Malone’s name and included vehicle descriptions that matched.
Heatherly was charged with felony theft by taking and tried in a bench trial; Malone testified against him pursuant to a plea deal.
The trial court initially convicted Heatherly of felony theft, then reduced the conviction to a misdemeanor after a restitution hearing based on the value of the items.
Heatherly moved for a new trial arguing the accomplice testimony (Malone’s) lacked required corroboration; the trial court denied the motion.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether accomplice testimony required corroboration to sustain the conviction	Heatherly: Malone’s testimony was uncorroborated and insufficient to support conviction	State: Evidence (e.g., Malone’s admissions, receipts, matching vehicle descriptions) sufficed given case posture	Court: No reversal — corroboration not required for misdemeanor conviction; trial court did not abuse discretion

Culver v. State, 230 Ga. App. 224 (discussing standard of review and viewing evidence in light most favorable to verdict)
Williams v. State, 228 Ga. App. 698 (same general standard cited for appellate review)
Mondy v. State, 229 Ga. App. 311 (review of denial of motion for new trial is for abuse of discretion)
Gilmore v. State, 315 Ga. App. 85 (state generally must corroborate accomplice testimony in felony prosecutions)
Lee v. State, 199 Ga. App. 246 (corroboration of accomplice testimony not required to sustain a misdemeanor conviction)
Youmans v. State, 51 Ga. App. 373 (early precedent holding corroboration unnecessary for misdemeanors)