Middleton v. State, 310 Ga. 365

On Nov. 22, 2016, Wesley Bryant arranged to meet someone to buy marijuana; surveillance showed Christopher Middleton enter Bryant’s car, then exit holding a gun and items in his jacket pocket; Bryant was found shot and later died.
Autopsy recovered two 9mm bullets; forensic testing showed the bullets and casings were 9mm and not fired from Bryant’s Glock .45, which was missing.
Middleton later admitted being in Bryant’s car, said a struggle over a 9mm occurred and the gun fired accidentally, and acknowledged taking the gun and marijuana after the shooting.
A Gwinnett County grand jury indicted Middleton for malice murder, multiple felony-murder counts (including based on armed robbery), armed robbery, aggravated assault, and firearm possession; jury acquitted malice murder but convicted felony murder (two counts), armed robbery, and aggravated assault.
The trial court merged/adjusted counts and ultimately sentenced Middleton to life for felony murder based on armed robbery; Middleton appealed, arguing insufficient evidence, a defective felony-murder count, and erroneous denial of a self-defense instruction.
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed: evidence sufficient, the indictment challenge was waived, and any error in denying the self-defense charge was harmless because Middleton was committing a felony (attempting to purchase marijuana).

Issue	Middleton's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence to support felony murder (based on armed robbery)	Evidence did not prove he committed armed robbery or caused the killing beyond a reasonable doubt; his account was accidental/self-defense	Surveillance, admissions, taking gun/marijuana, and forensic evidence support felony murder conviction	Affirmed: viewing evidence in favor of verdict, a rational jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (Jackson standard)
Felony-murder count defective for failing to allege armed robbery elements	Count 2 failed to allege essential elements of underlying armed robbery and thus is void	Form objection waived because it was not raised pretrial by special demurrer	Waived: challenge to indictment form must be raised pretrial; Middleton failed to timely demur (Reed)
Trial court refused jury instruction on justification/self-defense	Requested self-defense instruction; theory that Bryant pulled a gun and shot himself during a struggle	Even if instruction was warranted, Middleton was committing a felony (purchasing marijuana), which precludes justification; moreover, only slight/inconsistent evidence supported self-defense	Any error was harmless: Middleton admitted attempting to purchase marijuana (a felony), so self-defense would be unavailable; highly probable the omission did not affect verdict

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979) (standard for assessing sufficiency of the evidence)
Reed v. State, 291 Ga. 10 (2012) (form defects in indictments must be raised before trial)
McClure v. State, 306 Ga. 856 (2019) (Court vacated the Court of Appeals precedent trial court relied on regarding self-defense instruction)
Bannister v. State, 306 Ga. 289 (2019) (self-defense unavailable where defendant was committing a felony at the time)
Ogilvie v. State, 292 Ga. 6 (2012) (accident defense negates criminal intent)
Guerrero v. State, 307 Ga. 287 (2019) (failure to give self-defense charge is harmless when only slight evidence supports it)