Hicks v. State, 295 Ga. 268

Appellant Hicks and co-defendants were indicted for felony murder and related offenses in connection with the shooting death of Maynon Freeman.
Sanders pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and testified against Hicks, Pye, and Chambers; Hicks and Pye were convicted on all counts, Chambers was acquitted.
Evidence shows Freeman was shot in the back of the head by an AK-47 during a plan to recover rims stolen from a blue Ford Expedition linked to Pye.
Hicks traveled from Florida to Atlanta to visit Sanders, joined a plan at a skating rink, moved the AK-47 into Hicks’s car, and helped conceal the weapon and participants.
The group ultimately confronted the Freeman brothers, the weapon was used during the confrontation, and Hicks assisted in the subsequent flight and police encounter; trial included severance and jury instruction issues.
The court affirmed Hicks’s convictions, addressing sufficiency of the conspiracy/felony-murder evidence, jury questions about weapon awareness, ineffective assistance claims, and severance, with a dissent maintaining a contrary view on trial counsel performance.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence for conspiracy and felony murder	Hicks argues knowledge of the weapon was required	State need not prove Hicks knew about the weapon	Evidence sufficient; knowledge not required for conviction.
Jury's question about weapon awareness	Court should recharge on the weapon-awareness issue	Waived/invited error since defense urged no recharge	Waiver; no reversible error; plain-error review not warranted.
Ineffective assistance of trial counsel	Counsel deficient for not pursuing theft-by-taking/conspiracy theories	Defense strategy was reasonable and supported by record	No merit; strategy reasonable given record and deference owed to counsel.
Severance of co-defendants' trials	Severance required due to antagonistic defenses and evidence disparity	Joinder permissible given same crimes and overlapping evidence	No error; joinder affirmed; no prejudicial impact shown.

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (standard for evaluating sufficiency of evidence on appeal)
Williams v. State, 276 Ga. 384 (Ga. 2003) (conspiracy to robbery, weapon knowledge not required for felony murder)
Burke v. State, 234 Ga. 512 (Ga. 1975) (collateral crimes as natural and probable consequences of conspiracy)
Glisson v. Glisson, 268 Ga. 164 (Ga. 1997) (duty to recharge; pivotal legal questions must be clarified)
Shank v. State, 290 Ga. 844 (Ga. 2012) (invited error when defendant agrees with proposed instruction)
Moon v. State, 288 Ga. 508 (Ga. 2011) (antagonistic defenses do not alone require severance)
Adams v. State, 283 Ga. 298 (Ga. 2008) (co-conspirator statements admissible against defendant)