Noel v. State, 297 Ga. 698

Defendant Rodney Noel was convicted by a jury of three counts of felony murder (for the same victim), aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and cruelty to a child after nine-month-old Terrell Williams suffered fatal brain injuries and retinal hemorrhages while in Noel’s care at a hotel.
Evidence showed multiple blunt-impact head injuries and extensive retinal hemorrhaging; experts agreed injuries required substantial repetitive force (rapid violent shaking with impact) and were unlikely to be accidental.
Noel gave inconsistent statements: initially said he shook the child after hearing choking and tried resuscitation; later at the hospital and at trial he denied shaking and claimed only that he had “jostled” the car seat or did nothing causing harm.
The jury convicted Noel of all counts except malice murder; the trial court merged underlying felonies into each felony-murder verdict and imposed concurrent life terms for each felony-murder count.
On appeal Noel challenged sufficiency of the evidence and the trial court’s refusal to charge on affirmative defenses (accident and justification); he also raised sentencing issues.
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the convictions as supported by sufficient evidence, held the trial court’s refusal to give the accident/justification charges harmless, but found the sentencing legally erroneous and remanded for resentencing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (State)	Defendant's Argument (Noel)	Held
Sufficiency of evidence to support convictions	Evidence (injuries, expert testimony, scene statements) permits conviction	Conflicting witness testimony and expert skepticism of "shaken baby" diagnosis renders evidence insufficient	Affirmed: viewed in light most favorable to verdict, evidence sufficient to convict
Refusal to charge accident and justification	Charges not required given record and Noel’s trial denials; even if error, it was harmless	Pre-trial statement that he shook child after choking authorized the affirmative-defense charges	Harmless error (court assumes arguendo statement could authorize charge but finds no reversal warranted)
Multiple felony-murder convictions and merger of underlying felonies	Trial court merged underlying felonies into each felony-murder count and sentenced on all felony-murder counts	Noel contended sentencing was improper given merger principles	Reversed as to sentencing: multiple felony-murder convictions for same victim cannot all be sentenced; remanded for resentencing and correct merger application
Whether defendant’s trial strategy (lack of causation) affected jury instruction requirement	Court noted Noel’s trial testimony consistently denied causation, undermining affirmative defenses	Noel argued those defenses were his sole defenses and charges should have been given	Court held refusal to charge was harmless because testimony and expert evidence made defense legally untenable

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for reviewing sufficiency of the evidence)
Leeks v. State, 296 Ga. 515 (vacating extra felony-murder count for same victim)
Hulett v. State, 296 Ga. 49 (effect of vacated felony-murder count on merger of underlying felonies)
Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (once felony-murder count vacated underlying felony cannot merge into it)
Cowart v. State, 294 Ga. 333 (trial court discretion in determining which felony-murder verdicts stand vacated on remand)
Allen v. State, 288 Ga. 263 (jury resolves credibility conflicts; sufficiency review)
Davis v. State, 269 Ga. 276 (definition and burdens for accident defense)
Mills v. State, 287 Ga. 828 (criminal negligence and accident distinction)
Booker v. State, 247 Ga. 74 (when defendant's statement may authorize a requested charge)