Jackson v. State, 303 Ga. 487

On Sept. 21, 2012, Curtis Jordan (wearing a red bandana and identified as a Bloods member) was shot and killed; wounds included a shotgun slug to the torso (fatal) and multiple handgun wounds.
Lavoris Jackson (wearing a non-Red bandana) and co-defendant Ramel Brown were tried jointly; witnesses placed Brown with a shotgun and Jackson with a handgun at the scene; one witness saw both men firing and a third unidentified shooter.
The grand jury indicted Jackson on counts including malice murder, felony murder (one count alleging death by shotgun), aggravated assault, criminal street gang activity, and firearms offenses; jury convicted on all counts at trial; some felony murder convictions were vacated by operation of law.
Jackson argued insufficiency of the evidence because the fatal shotgun wound was not shown to have been fired by him (he was only shown to have fired a handgun), and he sought a jury instruction on proximate causation which the trial court did not give.
The trial court instructed the jury on party-to-a-crime liability and mere presence; Jackson did not request a proximate-cause instruction or object at trial and thus raised plain-error review on appeal.
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Jackson’s convictions, holding the evidence sufficient to convict him as a party to the crimes and that the instructions, read as a whole, did not plainly err by omitting a separate proximate-cause charge.

Issue	Jackson's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence to convict Jackson of murder/assault by shotgun	Evidence only showed Brown or an unknown shooter fired the shotgun; Jackson only fired a handgun, so evidence insufficient to convict him of causing death by shotgun	Jackson may be convicted as a party to the crime when shared intent is shown by conduct before/during/after the crime	Evidence sufficient to support convictions as a party to the crimes (shared intent may be inferred from conduct)
Failure to give proximate-cause jury instruction (plain error)	Trial court plainly erred by not instructing jury on proximate causation given indictment alleged death by shotgun	Jury was properly instructed on murder, felony murder, and party-to-a-crime; instructions as a whole sufficiently addressed causation; no obvious error	No plain error: charge as a whole adequately informed jury of causation element; omission of separate proximate-cause instruction not reversible

Grant v. State, 298 Ga. 835 (2016) (shared criminal intent may be inferred from defendant's conduct)
Jones v. State, 292 Ga. 656 (2013) (all persons concerned in commission of crime may be convicted even if others committed the lethal act)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979) (standard for sufficiency of the evidence review)
Alvelo v. State, 290 Ga. 609 (2012) (plain-error review standards)
Sapp v. State, 290 Ga. 247 (2011) (jury instructions reviewed as a whole)
Pennie v. State, 292 Ga. 249 (2013) (instructions on party to a crime and causation can be sufficient without separate proximate-cause charge)
Flournoy v. State, 294 Ga. 741 (2014) (upholding convictions where co-defendant fired fatal shot and defendant was convicted as party)
Williams v. State, 298 Ga. 208 (2015) (instructional adequacy on relationship between felony and homicide)
Brown v. State, 300 Ga. 446 (2017) (co-defendant's convictions affirmed)