People of Michigan v. Victor Graham Shivers, 330574

On March 29, 2015, Victor Graham Shivers allegedly exited a green Ford Explorer, pointed two handguns at Anthony Roper and Jairus Thomas, and fired; Jairus was wounded in the arm. Witnesses saw the vehicle and shooting.
Anthony later viewed a Facebook profile (named “Vic Shivers”) containing photos of defendant and a post threatening to “come back and shoot up” the victims’ house; a shooting at their house occurred the next morning.
Police linked a green Ford Explorer to defendant; a search found matching ammunition and defendant’s phone containing a video of him holding a similar handgun.
Defendant was convicted by a jury of two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, two counts of felonious assault, and one count of felony-firearm; he was sentenced as a fourth habitual offender to lengthy prison terms.
On appeal defendant raised hearsay/authentication challenges to the Facebook post, insufficiency of evidence for intent to kill, MRE 403 challenges to gang-style group photos, and multiple ineffective-assistance claims.
The Court of Appeals affirmed, addressing admissibility/authentication, sufficiency of identification and intent evidence, the 403 balancing for group photos, and ineffective-assistance claims (including a brief, cured parole-reference error).

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of Facebook post	Post was defendant’s statement and admissible as party admission	Testimony about the post was hearsay and not authenticated	Admission proper: prosecution proved by preponderance that profile belonged to defendant; qualifies as nonhearsay party admission under MRE 801(d)(2)(A)
Sufficiency of evidence for assault with intent to murder	Identification, matching vehicle/ammo, and video supported intent to kill	Identification inconsistent and circumstantial—insufficient for intent	Sufficient evidence: eyewitness IDs, corroborating physical evidence, and use of deadly weapon permitted inference of intent to kill
Admissibility of gang-related group photos (MRE 403)	Photos corroborated that victims saw Facebook images and aided ID	Photos unfairly prejudicial as gang evidence	Photographs were unfairly prejudicial but highly probative for identification; probative value not substantially outweighed prejudice, so admission upheld
Ineffective assistance of counsel (multiple theories)	Trial counsel’s failures prejudiced outcome	Counsel’s omissions were strategic or nonprejudicial; many objections would be futile	No reversal: most claimed errors were meritless or strategic; parole remark should've been objected to but was harmless given curative instruction and overwhelming independent evidence

People v Carines, 460 Mich 750 (plain-error standard for unpreserved claims)
Merrow v. Bofferding, 458 Mich 617 (proponent must prove by preponderance that party made out-of-court statement to invoke party admission)
People v McDade, 301 Mich App 343 (evidence need not be free of doubt; admissibility threshold is low)
People v Mills, 450 Mich 61 (photographs admissible if relevant and not unduly prejudicial)
People v Nowack, 462 Mich 392 (circumstantial evidence can support conviction without all physical exhibits)
People v Ericksen, 288 Mich App 192 (elements of assault with intent to commit murder)
People v Jackson, 498 Mich 246 (MRE 404(b) as rule of legal relevance; other-acts framework)