Rutledge v. State, 298 Ga. 37

Kisha “Kee” Rutledge ran an escort service (“Atlanta Keys”) and had a business/personal relationship with victim Keith Brown; Brown allegedly owed Rutledge money for services.
On June 11, 2007, Rutledge, co-defendant Stephen Woods, Jeff Dulcio, and Michelle Morrison drove to Brown’s apartment; Dulcio shot and killed Brown from the balcony after being armed with a gun Rutledge had given him.
Woods testified that Rutledge discussed a plan to rob Brown because he kept large amounts of cash and had not paid; Woods fled the scene with Rutledge after the shooting.
Independent evidence: a neighbor heard Brown refer to “Kee” and complain about payment; an escort (Nixon) had a separate relationship with Brown; Rutledge later threatened an escort (Peditto) with a gun after Peditto spoke to police; Rutledge sent a driver to pick up Dulcio the night of the shooting and fled Atlanta for over two years before arrest.
Rutledge was convicted by a jury of malice murder and other offenses; she appealed, claiming insufficient corroboration of Woods’s accomplice testimony and improper admission of Peditto’s out-of-court statement.

Issue	Rutledge's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Whether Woods’s accomplice testimony was sufficiently corroborated to sustain felony convictions	Woods was the only accomplice witness and his testimony lacked independent corroboration	Independent, slight circumstantial evidence (neighbor testimony, threats, pickup of Dulcio, flight) corroborated Woods and linked Rutledge to the crimes	Court held corroboration was sufficient; evidence viewed in light most favorable to jury sustained convictions
Whether admission of Alison “Honey” Peditto’s June 2007 out-of-court statement was improper	The State failed to confront Peditto with the substance of her prior statement, so the statement was not properly admissible as a prior inconsistent statement (or was hearsay)	Even if improperly admitted, the statement was cumulative of Woods’s testimony and other evidence and therefore harmless error	Court found any error harmless because the statement was cumulative and overwhelming independent evidence supported guilt

Threatt v. State, 293 Ga. 549 (accomplice testimony in felony cases requires corroboration)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (evidence reviewed in light most favorable to the jury verdict)
Smith v. Stacey, 281 Ga. 601 (admission of hearsay is harmless when cumulative of admissible evidence)
London v. State, 274 Ga. 91 (cumulative hearsay can be harmless in light of overwhelming evidence)
Mitchell v. State, 279 Ga. 158 (slight independent evidence can corroborate accomplice testimony)
Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (felony murder count vacatur cited for sentencing/merger context)