McDonald v. State, 296 Ga. 643

Background

In July 2001, Steve McDonald and co-indictee Carol Sue Gibson planned to rob a drug dealer; Gibson lured victim Kim Condry to a motel where McDonald and Gibson bound him, took his car and property, and later drove him to a bridge at the GA–FL line where Gibson shot him at McDonald’s direction.
Victim’s body was found tied to a tire in the Chattahoochee River; physical evidence (bindings, washcloth, casing, blood), phone records, and a gold necklace found in McDonald’s clothing corroborated Gibson’s testimony.
Gibson testified for the State under a plea deal; McDonald made inculpatory statements to law enforcement and fled to Florida and New Jersey after the incident.
McDonald was convicted by a Seminole County jury of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, armed robbery, false imprisonment, theft by taking, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and possession of a firearm by a felon; sentenced to life for malice murder plus consecutive firearm terms.
On appeal McDonald argued insufficiency of evidence (reliance on accomplice), ineffective assistance of counsel (various claims), improper denial of self-representation, improper jury pool composition, and error in the trial court’s post-trial merger/ sentencing treatment of convictions.

Issues

Issue	McDonald’s Argument	State’s Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence based on accomplice testimony	Conviction rested on uncorroborated testimony of accomplice Gibson	Testimony was corroborated by phone records, physical evidence, McDonald’s statements, possession of victim’s necklace, and flight	Evidence sufficient; accomplice testimony materially corroborated (Jackson v. Virginia applied)
Ineffective assistance — general unpreparedness / counsel health	Counsel was unprepared and impaired by health problems, affecting trial performance	Counsel was experienced, prepared; health issues did not affect competency; strong presumption of reasonable strategy	Claim failed: no deficient performance or prejudice (Strickland not met)
Ineffective assistance — venue, severance, suppression, jury-panel handling, Jackson-Denno hearing	Counsel failed to challenge venue, move to sever counts/sever possession charge, suppress necklace, seek new panel or misc. motions, and seek voluntariness hearing	Many challenges would have been meritless or were addressed: venue supported, D-N hearing held, limiting instructions given, juror excused and panel re-questioned, warrant supported seizure	Claims rejected: counsel not ineffective for failing to make meritless motions or where no prejudice shown
Right to self-representation	Trial court refused request to represent himself	McDonald abandoned the request before trial, confirming counsel would represent him	No error: request was withdrawn; no ruling required
Jury array composition	Jury pool did not reflect Seminole County demographics per 2000 census	No contemporaneous challenge at trial; claim waived on appeal	Waived for failure to object at trial
Merger and sentencing error	Trial court purported to merge many convictions into malice murder improperly	Felony-murder convictions vacate by operation of law when malice murder also convicted; remaining counts must be tested for merger under required-evidence test	Sentencing vacated in part: felony murder verdicts vacated by operation of law; theft by taking merged into armed robbery; remand for proper merger and resentencing

Key Cases Cited

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of the evidence)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (ineffective-assistance two-prong test)
Hulett v. State, 296 Ga. 49 (merger and vacatur of felony-murder when malice murder conviction obtained)
Romer v. State, 293 Ga. 339 (standard for evaluating counsel performance)
Wesley v. State, 286 Ga. 355 (counsel not ineffective for failing to make meritless objections)
Cotton v. State, 279 Ga. 358 (trial-court inquiry can cure potential juror prejudice)