Jacobs v. State, 303 Ga. 245

Victim Harriette filed for divorce after discovering Jacobs’ infidelity; six days before a scheduled court date she was found shot on the back porch. Jacobs initially reported it as an apparent suicide.
Crime-scene and forensic evidence suggested staging: gun and coffee cup had little or no blood while heavy blood pooled where the body sat; gunpowder stippling indicated the shot was fired from at least six inches; Harriette’s hands lacked gunshot residue.
The .38 revolver that killed Harriette was owned and concealed by Jacobs; blood spatter analysis found multiple drops of Harriette’s blood on Jacobs’ clothing and shoes.
Several of Harriette’s close friends testified about pre-death statements by Harriette saying she feared Jacobs, that he threatened to make her disappear, and that she would never hurt herself; additional evidence showed prior domestic incidents and controlling behavior.
Jacobs was convicted by a jury of malice murder, felony murder (vacated by operation of law), aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during a felony; sentenced to life without parole plus 5 years; appeal challenges admission of hearsay under OCGA § 24-8-807, a good-character jury charge, and ineffective assistance of counsel.

Issue	Jacobs' Argument	State's Argument	Held
Admissibility of Harriette’s out-of-court statements under OCGA § 24-8-807 (residual hearsay)	Statements lacked "exceptional guarantees of trustworthiness" and thus were inadmissible	Statements about ongoing domestic abuse to close confidantes bore sufficient trustworthiness and were highly probative	Court affirmed admission under Rule 807; trial court did not abuse discretion
Sufficiency of the evidence to support convictions	Evidence was circumstantial and insufficient to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt	Forensic, testimonial, and circumstantial evidence supported guilt	Evidence sufficient; convictions affirmed
Jury charge on good character (use of term "violence") / alleged judicial comment on evidence	Charge misstated trait (used "violence" as bad trait) and amounted to comment on evidence; plain error review	Charge was tailored to evidence; trial court merely explained testimony on character for non-violence; no comment on evidence	No plain error; charge appropriate when read in full and context-sensitive
Ineffective assistance of counsel for not objecting to the character charge	Counsel should have objected to the charge and alleged judicial comment	Objections would have been meritless because charge was proper; failure to object not ineffective	No ineffective assistance; failing to raise meritless objections does not establish ineffectiveness

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (constitutional standard for sufficiency of evidence)
State v. Frost, 297 Ga. 296 (Ga. 2015) (interpretation of new Georgia Evidence Code and reference to federal analogues)
Rivers v. United States, 777 F.3d 1306 (11th Cir. 2015) (residual hearsay exception is narrow and requires exceptional guarantees of trustworthiness)
Smart v. State, 299 Ga. 414 (Ga. 2016) (upholding admission under Rule 807 of domestic-abuse statements to friends and family)
Wesley v. State, 286 Ga. 355 (Ga. 2009) (failing to raise a meritless objection is not ineffective assistance of counsel)