Manning v. State, 303 Ga. 723

Background

On Oct. 11, 2012, Marvin Charlton Manning was indicted for malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and related offenses arising from the shooting death of Jimmy Sims. The jury acquitted on malice murder but convicted on the other counts; Manning received life without parole plus a consecutive five-year term.
Eyewitnesses at a gas station testified Manning stood at the passenger door pointing a gun at the victim, made threatening remarks, and then fired; another man nearby also pointed a gun and fled after the shooting. One eyewitness believed Manning fired first; the victim fired back and injured someone.
A patrol officer found a revolver with five spent rounds next to Manning, $424 near the vehicle, and a removed interior door panel; the victim died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Manning asserted justification/self-defense; the jury was instructed on self-defense but the State presented testimony and other evidence that could refute that claim.
The State introduced Manning’s 2008 convictions (aggravated assault and terroristic threats related to a drive-by shooting) under OCGA § 24-4-404(b) to prove intent/motive and to rebut self-defense. The trial court gave limiting instructions; Manning objected to admission and later raised related instructional errors on appeal.
The Georgia Supreme Court reviewed sufficiency of evidence, admissibility of prior-bad-acts evidence under Rule 404(b), and claimed instructional errors, ultimately affirming the convictions.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence to disprove justification/self-defense	State: eyewitness testimony and corroborating physical evidence support convictions	Manning: evidence unclear who fired first; justification could apply	Court: Evidence viewed favorably to verdict; jury could reject self-defense; sufficiency upheld (Jackson standard)
Admissibility of prior convictions under Rule 404(b)	State: prior convictions show motive/intent and rebut self-defense	Manning: prior acts not relevant to intent and were unduly prejudicial	Court: Even if admission erred on relevance/prejudice, error harmless given substantial evidence of guilt
Failure to give a specific limiting instruction about other-acts evidence	Manning: trial court should have explicitly told jury they may not use other-acts evidence to prove charged acts	State: court did give limiting instructions tying other-acts evidence to intent	Court: No plain error — instructions as a whole limited use to intent and did not likely affect outcome
Jury instruction allegedly lumping charges and failing to require separate determinations	Manning: instruction wording confused jury and failed to require separate verdicts per count	State: court separately read charges, elements, and verdict form with spaces per count	Court: No plain error — charge as a whole was adequate; jury’s mixed verdict shows they considered counts individually

Key Cases Cited

Mosby v. State, 300 Ga. 450 (2017) (deference to jury credibility and weight determinations)
Batten v. State, 295 Ga. 442 (2014) (other-acts threats plus eyewitness shooting testimony can defeat self-defense)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979) (standard for sufficiency of evidence review)
Blackmon v. State, 302 Ga. 173 (2017) (State may present evidence to refute self-defense)
Pridgett v. State, 290 Ga. 365 (2012) (jury not required to accept claimed justification where contrary evidence exists)
Parks v. State, 300 Ga. 303 (2016) (harmless-error analysis for admission of other-acts evidence)
Booth v. State, 301 Ga. 678 (2017) (three-pronged test for admissibility of other-acts evidence under Rule 404(b))
Olds v. State, 299 Ga. 65 (2016) (application of Evidence Code to other-acts analysis)
State v. Jones, 297 Ga. 156 (2015) (abuse-of-discretion standard for admission of other-acts evidence)
Brown v. State, 303 Ga. 158 (2018) (evidence-code methodology for Rule 404(b) inquiries)
Davis v. State, 290 Ga. 757 (2012) (review of jury charge as a whole)
State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. 29 (2011) (plain-error review standard for unobjected-to jury instructions)