Lucas v. the State, 328 Ga. App. 741

On March 28, 2012, surveillance and witness testimony showed a person broke a Huddle House front door, left after unsuccessfully opening a register, returned within 5–20 minutes, forced into the office, removed a safe and placed it in a vehicle.
Detectives identified Christopher Lucas from stills; Lucas and his girlfriend were later connected to the safe, which was recovered in a ravine with a section cut out; tools and a jar like the missing change jar were found in the home.
Lucas was indicted and convicted of two counts of burglary (both alleging entry of the same Huddle House on the same date with intent to steal), criminal damage, theft by taking, and possession of burglary tools.
Lucas appealed, arguing (1) the two burglary counts merged into a single continuous act and (2) trial counsel was ineffective for not moving to suppress statements made to detectives that Lucas claimed were induced by promises of benefit.
The Court reviewed merger de novo and reviewed the ineffective-assistance factual findings for clear error, applying Strickland for the deficient-performance and prejudice analysis.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether two burglary counts merge into one unit of prosecution	Lucas: entries were to the same building, same intent, minutes apart — a single continuous criminal act, so the counts must merge	State: leaving the premises before returning breaks the continuum and supports separate punishments	Court: Counts merged as a matter of fact; vacated one burglary conviction and remanded for resentencing
Whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move to suppress statements to detectives	Lucas: detectives induced statements by promising to obtain bond / suggesting no prosecution, so counsel should have moved to suppress; prejudice exists	State: even if statements should have been suppressed, overwhelming independent evidence of guilt means no reasonable probability of a different outcome	Court: Even assuming statements would have been suppressed, Lucas failed to show Strickland prejudice; ineffective-assistance claim denied

McConnell v. State, 263 Ga. App. 686 (Ga. Ct. App. 2003) (discusses merger and prohibition on multiple punishments)
Hawkins v. State, 302 Ga. App. 84 (Ga. Ct. App. 2010) (merger when offenses are part of a continuous criminal act)
Nosratifard v. State, 320 Ga. App. 564 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013) (standard of review for merger questions)
Withrow v. State, 275 Ga. App. 110 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005) (continuing-course-of-conduct and merger analysis)
Ingram v. State, 279 Ga. 132 (Ga. 2005) (minute intervals that do not complete a separate act still constitute one transaction)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984) (two-part test for ineffective assistance of counsel)