Pulley v. State, 291 Ga. 330

Pulley was convicted after a jury trial of malice murder, theft by taking a motor vehicle, and felony theft by taking; he received life for malice murder and consecutive ten-year terms for the thefts.
On April 9, 2008, Pulley allegedly killed Darryl Mason during an altercation, beating him with a television and discarding the victim’s property, then placing stolen items in Mason’s car.
Pulley fled with the victim’s stolen goods, including two PlayStation 2 consoles, DVDs, movies, video games, jewelry, and watches; police later recovered DVDs with blood in the car.
Pulley admitted during police interviews to taking the stolen items and claimed Mason attacked him with scissors; the medical examiner attributed Mason’s death to a fatal blow to the head with blunt trauma.
Pulley challenged the felony theft by taking conviction on the basis that the value of stolen items did not exceed $500; the record included testimony valuing the consoles at about $150 each and DVDs totaling $175, with other goods referenced as well.
Appellant appealed, and the court affirmed, addressing issues of voluntariness of statements, jury instructions on mutual combat and voluntary manslaughter, and other trial rulings.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of value for felony theft by taking	Pulley argues value did not exceed $500	State contends value shown by evidence supports felony theft	Sufficient evidence supports value finding and felony theft conviction
Voluntariness of inculpatory statements	Statements induced by promise of benefit	Totality of circumstances shows voluntariness despite promises	Statements were voluntary under the totality of circumstances
Mutual combat and voluntary manslaughter charges	Trial court erred by not charging mutual combat and voluntary manslaughter	No evidence to support mutual combat; no basis for voluntary manslaughter	No error; no charge on mutual combat or voluntary manslaughter warranted
Provocation for voluntary manslaughter and self-defense juxtaposition	Evidence supported voluntary manslaughter due to provocation	No adequate provocation; self-defense charge correct	Trial court properly refused voluntary manslaughter based on provocation; self-defense charge allowed
Character evidence based on clean record	Request for character charge warranted by discussion of clean record	Clean record alone insufficient for good-character instruction	No error; absence of prior convictions does not automatically warrant character instruction

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. Supreme Court 1979) (sufficiency review standard for criminal convictions)
Partin v. State, 302 Ga. App. 589 (Ga. App. 2010) (measures value for theft by taking; market value evidence admissibility)
Williams v. State, 246 Ga. App. 347 (Ga. App. 2000) (weight of opinion evidence for market value)