Porter v. State, 292 Ga. 292

Appellant Thaddeus Porter and Donovan Champion planned to rob a restaurant in the same strip mall as the cleaners where the victim worked.
They entered the cleaners, forced the victim into a back office, and took a bag containing money and coins.
Porter fatally shot the victim after striking him with a gun and an aluminum bat.
Police investigated for months and, based on a tip from a concerned citizen, arrested Porter and Champion.
Evidence supported a rational jury’s verdict of malice murder and related offenses beyond a reasonable doubt.
The trial court allowed a detective to testify that the tipster was not a witness or participant, and Porter challenged several claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of detective’s testimony about tipster non-participation	Porter argues the detective’s comment explained the detective’s conduct.	State contends waiver and non-hearsay relevance; testimony did not convey hearsay.	Waived; alternatively, non-hearsay; admissible to explain investigation findings.
Ineffective assistance—failure to object to tipster testimony	Counsel’s failure to object constituted deficient performance.	No deficiency; objection would have been meritless.	Counsel was not deficient; no prejudice shown.
Ineffective assistance—gun possession questioning and alibi preparation	Counsel erred in eliciting gun possession evidence and handling alibi witnesses.	Actions were strategic; defendant presumed to have accepted them; no prejudice shown.	No deficient performance or prejudice established.
Sufficiency of the evidence to convict	Evidence showed Porter participated in the robbery and murder.		Evidence was sufficient to support the verdict beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (standard for appellate review of evidence sufficiency)
Jones v. State, 290 Ga. 576 (Ga. 2012) (admissibility of statements to explain investigatory conduct; preservation rules)
Rucker v. State, 291 Ga. 134 (Ga. 2012) (preservation and review of objections in trial context)
Mitchell v. State, 290 Ga. 490 (Ga. 2012) (analysis of when counsel’s decisions are strategic)
Hayes v. State, 262 Ga. 881 (Ga. 1993) (meritless objections and ineffective assistance standards)
Adams v. State, 274 Ga. 854 (Ga. 2002) (counsel not required to anticipate client misstatements)
Dickens v. State, 280 Ga. 320 (Ga. 2006) (prejudice required beyond speculation)
Head v. Carr, 273 Ga. 613 (Ga. 2001) (de novo application of law to facts in ineffective assistance)