Smith v. State, 307 Ga. 680

On July 30, 2014, two-year-old Tucker Smith was found unresponsive at home and later died of blunt force and rotational brain injuries; medical evidence showed substantial force and nine healing rib fractures from weeks earlier.
Appellant Mary Katherine Smith (Tucker’s mother), her daughter Jamie, and Jamie’s boyfriend Jeremy Kitchens lived together; witnesses described corporal punishment (corner time, occasional "pops" or spankings).
Witnesses and videoed interviews placed Smith shaking and (in at least one interview) slapping Tucker shortly before he became unresponsive; Kitchens gave inconsistent statements and ultimately denied harming Tucker.
Smith, a hospice nurse, delayed seeking medical help and appeared unusually calm at the hospital; doctors concluded the fatal injuries were not accidental.
A Richmond County jury convicted Smith of felony murder (based on cruelty to children), first‑degree cruelty to children, and aggravated assault; trial court later merged/ vacated the merged counts and imposed life for felony murder.

Issue	Smith's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence (circumstantial standard)	Evidence only circumstantial and did not exclude reasonable hypothesis that Kitchens alone killed Tucker	Jury could infer Smith’s participation from her shaking/slapping, prior unexplained injuries, failure to seek help, and statements; Kitchens’ denials undermined alternate hypothesis	Affirmed — evidence sufficient to exclude every reasonable hypothesis but guilt of Smith; also sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia due process standard
Dismissal of juror for tardiness/sleeping	Removal prejudicial; trial court abused discretion in replacing juror with alternate mid-trial	Trial court properly exercised discretion under OCGA § 15-12-172 because juror was late twice and had been reported sleeping; delay would have been undue	Affirmed — court did not abuse discretion in dismissing juror for tardiness (sleeping need not be decided)
Failure to give good-character instruction	Requested instruction based on testimony that Smith was a "good mother" (and on appeal, peacefulness/temperance)	No sufficient evidence of those specific character traits to require instruction; alternate traits not requested at trial (plain‑error review)	Affirmed — no reversible error; even if instruction omission were error, it would not have changed outcome

Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (1993) (merger principles for convictions/sentences)
Brown v. State, 301 Ga. 728 (2017) (standard for evaluating whether circumstantial evidence excludes every reasonable hypothesis)
Virger v. State, 305 Ga. 281 (2019) (applying circumstantial‑evidence sufficiency in homicide context)
Gomez v. State, 301 Ga. 445 (2017) (jury credibility and circumstantial evidence review)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979) (federal due process standard for sufficiency of the evidence)
Rivera v. State, 282 Ga. 355 (2007) (trial court discretion to replace juror for good cause, including tardiness)
Brooks v. State, 281 Ga. 14 (2006) (tardiness as sound basis for juror dismissal)
Thornton v. State, 307 Ga. 121 (2019) (plain‑error standard for unpreserved jury‑instruction claims)
Robinson v. State, 306 Ga. 614 (2019) (limits on raising ineffective‑assistance claims while represented by trial counsel)
Reed v. State, 304 Ga. 400 (2018) (preservation rules for requesting jury instructions)