Neely v. State, 302 Ga. 121

On November 5, 2011, Shelton Lee Brooks was beaten and fatally shot in his apartment; medical evidence showed blunt-force trauma and a single contact gunshot wound.
Truseno A1 Neely (defendant) and Kevin Fountain (co-defendant) were seen together that evening; store video and a neighbor identified Neely as wearing a camouflage jacket and holding a gun when leaving Brooks’ apartment.
Fountain pleaded to voluntary manslaughter and testified that Neely struck Brooks, threatened Fountain with a gun, searched the apartment, and then shot Brooks; Fountain had previously handled the murder weapon and admitted inconsistencies in statements.
Neely initially denied presence, hid from police, and gave inconsistent statements; he later testified that he stayed in the car and that Fountain had a .45 pistol, admitting he had lied to police.
A jury convicted Neely of malice murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony; Neely’s motion for new trial was denied and he appealed.

Issue	Neely's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence	Evidence was entirely circumstantial and failed to exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence	Eyewitness ID, video, jacket identification, Neely’s presence and lies support conviction	Evidence sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia; conviction affirmed
Ineffective assistance for not calling witnesses	Trial counsel failed to call witnesses who would have said Fountain had a gun near the murder time	Counsel had strategic reasons; available witness statements were speculative or cumulative; one witness (Johnson) gave limited hearsay at hearing	No ineffective assistance: counsel’s choices were reasonable and Neely failed to show prejudice
Admissibility/value of uncalled-witness hearsay at new-trial hearing	Hearsay/unsworn statements cannot prove prejudice from failure to call witnesses	Court: defendant must present testimony or affidavit from uncalled witness	Court applied rule, discounted unsworn hearsay; required live testimony/affidavit
Trial strategy deference	Trial counsel’s tactical decisions were unreasonable, undermining confidence in outcome	Strategic decisions receive high deference; counsel explained reasons for witness decisions and presented alternative defenses	Court upheld deference to counsel’s strategy; no reversal for strategy choices

Smiley v. State, 300 Ga. 582 (explains jury role in assessing circumstantial-evidence hypotheses)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (establishes standard for sufficiency of the evidence)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (ineffective-assistance two-prong standard)
Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365 (competence standards in criminal defense challenges)
Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362 (prejudice standard under Strickland)
Manriquez v. State, 285 Ga. 880 (uncalled-witness claims require testimony or affidavit, not hearsay)
Shockley v. State, 297 Ga. 661 (deference to counsel’s strategic decisions)
Lewis v. State, 298 Ga. 889 (credibility determinations are for the jury)
State v. Worsley, 293 Ga. 315 (review standard: high deference to counsel performance)