Mathis v. State, 309 Ga. 110

June 11, 2016: following an argument with his sister Melanie Palmer over an EBT card, Nathaniel Mathis approached Palmer’s boyfriend Rodney Benton (sitting in a car) and shot him; Benton died of eight gunshot wounds.
After the handgun shots, Mathis re-entered the house, retrieved an AK-style rifle, briefly struggled over it with his nephew Christopher Snipes, then fled to a nearby park where he told a passerby he had “just snapped” and asked someone to call his family.
Police recovered a handgun, a drum magazine, and .40-caliber ammunition; gunshot residue was found on Mathis; no weapon was found in Benton’s car.
Mathis was a first-offender probationer. A jury convicted him of malice murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a first-offender probationer; other counts were vacated or merged. He appealed.
On appeal Mathis challenged (1) sufficiency of the evidence for his convictions and (2) ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failing to file a pretrial immunity motion under OCGA § 16-3-24.2 and for failing to call his nephew and mother as defense witnesses.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence (malice murder; firearm offenses)	Evidence was insufficient; shooting was in sudden passion or self-defense given a long-running feud and Benton’s alleged habit of carrying a gun	Evidence showed deliberate shooting (≈8 shots), no weapon in victim’s car, gunshot residue, Mathis’s admissions and recovery of firearm — supporting malice and firearm possession	Convictions affirmed; evidence sufficient for malice murder and firearm offenses
Ineffective assistance — failure to file pretrial immunity motion (OCGA § 16-3-24.2)	Counsel was deficient for not moving for immunity/self-defense pretrial and thus impaired plea strategy	Any immunity motion would have been meritless because self-defense evidence was lacking; counsel not ineffective for omitting a meritless motion	Claim fails — counsel not deficient; no prejudice shown
Ineffective assistance — failure to call nephew and mother as defense witnesses	Nephew and mother would have testified Benton carried a gun and tensions existed, supporting voluntary manslaughter/self-defense	Calling them was reasonable trial strategy; nephew’s testimony would not establish self-defense and mother gave no favorable, material testimony that was withheld	Claim fails — witness decisions fall within reasonable trial strategy; no deficient performance shown

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency review)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (ineffective assistance two-prong test)
Velasco v. State, 306 Ga. 888 (pretrial immunity motion requires preponderance showing of self-defense)
Swanson v. State, 306 Ga. 153 (reaffirming Strickland application in Georgia)
Romer v. State, 293 Ga. 339 (deficiency standard for counsel performance)
McCray v. State, 301 Ga. 241 (jury may reject self-defense testimony)
McGuire v. State, 307 Ga. 500 (jury may credit murder over voluntary manslaughter account)
Mohamud v. State, 297 Ga. 532 (witness-calling is trial strategy; generally not ineffective assistance)
Sutton v. State, 295 Ga. 350 (speculation about obtaining a better plea insufficient for Strickland)
Gaston v. State, 307 Ga. 634 (scope of cross-examination is tactical and rarely ineffective)