State v. Smith, 299 Ga. 901

Robert Lenoris Smith was indicted for felony murder after Octavius Powell’s death and moved pretrial to suppress custodial admissions (oral, written, and video).
After a Jackson-Denno hearing the trial court suppressed the statements, finding the State failed to prove voluntariness by a preponderance of the evidence.
The State sought to admit a videotaped interview; Investigator Nix attempted to authenticate a disc but gave equivocal testimony about which disc he reviewed and whether he watched it in full. The State did not tender the disc into the appellate record.
Investigator Nix was the only live witness offered to establish voluntariness; on cross-examination he could not recall key details (presence of another investigator, whether he promised to tell the victim’s father about remorse) and could not confirm the disc’s identity or completeness.
The trial court credited credibility concerns and excluded the video recording and other custodial statements; the State appealed and the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the State authenticated the video recording of Smith’s interview	The State contended the disc was the recorded interview authenticated by Investigator Nix	Smith argued the recording was not properly authenticated and Nix’s testimony was equivocal	Court held authentication failed; exclusion was not an abuse of discretion
Whether the custodial statements were voluntary and admissible	State argued Miranda waiver form and Nix’s testimony showed voluntariness	Smith argued statements were involuntary and credibility issues (and missing video) undermined voluntariness proof	Court accepted trial court’s credibility findings and affirmed suppression for lack of proof of voluntariness
Whether the trial court’s credibility and factual findings should be disturbed on appeal	State argued appellate review should permit admission	Smith argued trial court’s factual credibility findings should be upheld	Court held appellate court must accept trial judge’s factual/credibility findings absent clear error and affirmed
Whether exclusion of the video and testimony deprived the State of sufficient evidence to meet its burden	State argued remaining evidence (written waiver, Nix testimony) sufficed	Smith argued without the recording, State did not meet its burden by preponderance	Court held without authenticated video and with Nix’s equivocal testimony the State did not meet its burden; suppression affirmed

Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 386 (1964) (requires a pretrial hearing to determine voluntariness of confessions)
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) (Miranda warnings and waiver govern custodial interrogation)
Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477 (1972) (State bears burden by preponderance to prove voluntariness)
Heard v. State, 296 Ga. 681 (2015) (video recording authentication principles applied to statements)
Burgess v. State, 292 Ga. 821 (2013) (admission of evidence reviewed for abuse of discretion)
Cheley v. State, 299 Ga. 88 (2016) (appellate review accepts trial court’s factual findings on suppression motions)
Bright v. State, 265 Ga. 265 (1995) (State’s burden to show voluntariness of confession)
State v. Colvard, 296 Ga. 381 (2015) (standards guiding appellate review of suppression rulings)