State v. Newman, 305 Ga. 792

In June 2016 Newman, a convicted felon and Salt Creek Couriers supervisor, went to employee Jason Wood’s home to retrieve a company van; Newman brought a handgun.
Confrontation at Wood’s residence: Newman displayed a gun, Shadowens (Wood’s girlfriend) began dialing 911 and was audible on a neighbor’s surveillance audio; a gunshot occurred and Wood died from a chest wound outside the van.
Newman gave multiple, inconsistent accounts: initially claimed Wood shot at him; later said the gun accidentally discharged when it fell from his lap as Wood entered the van; at trial he asserted accident/self-defense.
Jury convicted Newman of two counts of felony murder (one tied to aggravated assault), aggravated assault, several firearm-possession offenses; acquitted on attempted murder and one firearm count; deadlocked on malice murder.
Trial court charged on self-defense and accident but did not give, sua sponte, a jury instruction on use of force in defense of habitation (OCGA § 16-3-23); defense counsel did not request that charge.
Trial court granted Newman’s motion for new trial, finding error in failing to charge defense-of-habitation and ineffective assistance for not requesting it; State appealed.

Issue	Newman’s Argument	State’s Argument	Held
Whether failure to instruct on defense of habitation (OCGA § 16-3-23) was plain error requiring a new trial	Trial court erred by not charging jury on defense-of-habitation; slight evidence supported giving the charge	Any error was harmless because jury had accident/self-defense instructions, strong evidence of guilt, and multiple inconsistent stories	No plain error; failure to instruct did not affect substantial rights and did not warrant new trial
Whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request a defense-of-habitation instruction	Counsel was ineffective for not requesting the charge, entitling Newman to relief	No prejudice from omission, so counsel not ineffective	Counsel not ineffective because no prejudice shown
Sufficiency of evidence to support convictions	Newman claimed accident/self-defense; argued ambiguous facts	State argued evidence supports convictions beyond reasonable doubt	Evidence sufficient for jury to reject defenses and convict
Remedy and remand	Newman sought new trial on all grounds raised	State sought reversal of new-trial grant and remand for unresolved claims	Appellate court reversed new-trial grant and remanded for trial court to address remaining claims

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of evidence)
Revere v. State, 302 Ga. 44 (discussing sufficiency review)
State v. Johnson, 305 Ga. 237 (procedural plain-error context)
State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. 29 (plain error test elements)
Davis v. State, 269 Ga. 276 (slight evidence suffices to authorize instruction)
Barrett v. State, 292 Ga. 160 (no prejudice where jury rejected defense and testimony didn’t support habitation defense)
Dolphy v. State, 288 Ga. 705 (shifting stories and strong evidence undercut claim of reversible error)
Hampton v. State, 302 Ga. 166 (linking plain error prejudice and ineffective-assistance prejudice)