Montgomery v. State, 315 Ga. 467

On October 23, 2017, Justuss Rogers was shot multiple times in a cul-de-sac after Lakoaia Johnson lured him there; he later died of his injuries.
Evidence tied Gregory Montgomery to the scene: four .40-caliber casings, a .40-caliber bullet in the car, and a black bookbag found nearby containing Montgomery’s cell phone and a gun magazine; his phone had photos/video of him with a pistol and a caption referencing a "40."
Johnson and a juvenile S.D. implicated Montgomery; a security guard identified Montgomery running from the scene with Johnson holding a gun; Montgomery was later arrested hiding at his sister’s house.
At trial (Feb–Mar 2019) the jury convicted Montgomery of malice murder, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and firearm possession; he received life without parole for malice murder. Felony-murder counts were vacated by operation of law; aggravated assault merged.
During deliberations the jury asked whether felony murder required the defendant to have pulled the trigger or merely be a party to the underlying felony; the court recharged on parties to a crime, conspiracy, and felony murder but declined to reread the full "reasonable doubt" definition requested by Montgomery.
Montgomery moved for a new trial arguing the recharge was erroneous and that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence ("thirteenth juror"); the trial court denied the motion and the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed.

Issue	Montgomery's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Trial court’s recharge: refusal to read full definition of reasonable doubt during recharge	Court should include the full reasonable-doubt instruction when recharging on felony murder and related charges to balance guilt instructions	Jury asked a specific question about felony murder/party liability; no question about reasonable doubt, so recharging on reasonable doubt was unnecessary	No error — court acted within discretion; recharge addressed jury’s question and included presumption/burden language; no mandate to repeat the detailed reasonable-doubt definition
Motion for new trial under "thirteenth juror" (weight of the evidence)	Verdict was against the weight of the evidence; trial court should have granted a new trial	Trial court applied thirteenth-juror standard and the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict	Denial affirmed — appellate review limited to Jackson sufficiency; evidence sufficiently supported convictions and credibility/conflicts were for the jury

Flood v. State, 311 Ga. 800 (clarifies recharge obligations when jury requests instruction on a particular issue)
Barnes v. State, 305 Ga. 18 (trial court has discretion over scope and formulation of additional jury instructions)
Dozier v. State, 306 Ga. 29 (no general mandate to recharge on all principles when responding to a specific jury request)
Hinton v. State, 312 Ga. 258 (explains thirteenth-juror standard and limits appellate review of general‑grounds new-trial denials)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for legal sufficiency review)
Vega v. State, 285 Ga. 32 (credibility and conflict resolution are for the jury)
White v. State, 293 Ga. 523 (trial court must apply thirteenth-juror standard when properly raised)