McCULLOUGH v. State, 304 Ga. 290

In February 2012 Appellant Brawny McCullough and Jonathan Henderson were implicated in the shootings that killed Appellant’s father (Gene) and great-aunt (Peggy Molden); bullets and a .38-caliber shell casing were recovered and ballistics showed fragments from the 2010 and 2012 shootings came from the same .38 revolver.
Evidence included Appellant’s prior attempts to hire others to kill Gene (2008–2012), statements to a co-worker that he arranged the 2010 shooting and planned to pay Henderson $10,000 to kill Gene, frequent calls/texts between Appellant and Henderson before the murders (phones off the morning of the murders), and recorded admissions by Appellant that he planned the murder and provided the revolver.
Henderson testified under testimonial immunity in exchange for the State withdrawing the death-penalty seek against him; he implicated Appellant and testified Appellant shot both victims. Appellant did not testify.
A jury found Appellant guilty of two counts each of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony; the penalty phase jury imposed life without parole (death not imposed).
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the convictions as supported by sufficient evidence but vacated and remanded to correct a merger/sentencing error: the aggravated-assault count for Gene should have merged into the malice-murder conviction for Gene and thus that aggravated-assault conviction/sentence was vacated.

Issue	Appellant's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence to support convictions	Evidence was legally insufficient because no physical evidence (e.g., fingerprints/DNA) directly linked Appellant and Henderson to the shooting and Henderson was biased by a plea/immunity deal	Jury could credit corroborating circumstantial evidence (motive, communications, admissions, ballistics, attempts to procure hits) and assess witness credibility despite immunity/deal	Affirmed: viewed in light most favorable to verdict, evidence was sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia to support convictions
Sixth Amendment/right to counsel — denial of continuance to retain preferred lead counsel (Gardner)	Trial court abused discretion and violated Sixth Amendment by refusing to continue so Gardner could try the case	Appellant had three competent capital defenders (Thompson, Word, Baker) prepared to try the case; repeated delays and case age justified proceeding; choice of appointed counsel is discretionary	Affirmed: no abuse of discretion or Sixth Amendment violation given competent, prepared counsel and countervailing calendar/justice interests
Sentencing/merger error (aggravated assault vs. murder)	Appellant argued multiple convictions/sentences improperly duplicated for same conduct	State recognized some merger but trial court had sentenced aggravated assault of Gene consecutively	Court vacated aggravated-assault conviction/sentence as it merged into malice murder for Gene

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (establishes standard for sufficiency review)
Wheat v. United States, 486 U.S. 153 (Sixth Amendment counsel-of-choice principles and balancing test)
Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered v. United States, 491 U.S. 617 (appointed counsel adequacy principle)
Morris v. Slappy, 461 U.S. 1 (no absolute right to a ‘meaningful relationship’ with counsel; trial-court discretion on continuances)
United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. 140 (balancing right to retained counsel of choice against court calendar)
Davis v. State, 261 Ga. 221 (indigent defendant cannot compel specific appointed counsel; court discretion; objective considerations may warrant reversal)
Grant v. State, 278 Ga. 817 (reversal where court replaced longstanding capital defense team absent comparable countervailing reasons)
Oliphant v. State, 295 Ga. 597 (merger principles: aggravated assault based on same killing merges into murder)