Taylor v. State, 306 Ga. 277

On June 20, 2009, Onterio Perez Dorsey was shot and killed during a drug transaction at an apartment complex; Kelvin Sheats drove Dorsey to the scene and witnessed the events from his car.
Witness Brandon Jones (who knew appellant) and Sheats later identified Davious Letron Taylor (nicknamed “Foot”) as the shooter; Jones initially gave information shortly after the shooting and made a more detailed identification in 2013 while incarcerated.
The case went cold until 2013 when a new investigator reinterviewed witnesses; Sheats identified Taylor from multiple photo lineups in 2013, and police obtained other corroborating evidence linking Taylor and co-defendant Banks to the scene.
A Clayton County grand jury indicted Taylor in December 2014; he was tried jointly with Banks in April 2016 and convicted of malice murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime; sentenced to life without parole plus consecutive five years.
The State sought to admit extrinsic-act evidence (a 2011 aggravated-assault/weapon incident and a stricken 2008 drug-possession incident) under OCGA § 24-4-404(b); the court admitted the 2011 incident, which Taylor later challenged on appeal.

Issue	Taylor's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence to convict	Evidence insufficient—identifications were unreliable	Evidence (Sheats, Jones, phone records, 2013 ID, threats/conduct) supports conviction	Conviction upheld; evidence sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia
Admission of 404(b) extrinsic-act evidence (2011 shooting)	Admission prejudicial and improper	Admissible for motive, intent, knowledge, plan; limited probative value	If erroneous, admission was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt
Jury instructions—accomplice testimony and statute of limitations	Court erred by not charging on accomplice testimony and statute of limitations sua sponte	No accomplice evidence about Sheats; indictment alleged tolling for limitations and jury was instructed on State’s burden	No plain error: accomplice charge not warranted; statute-of-limitations instruction adequate
Ineffective assistance of counsel	Trial counsel failed to object/request charges/demur (various failures)	Counsel’s failures were not deficient because underlying objections lacked merit	Claims fail under Strickland; no reasonable probability of different outcome

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (insufficiency review standard)
United States v. Jernigan, 341 F.3d 1273 (11th Cir.) (404(b) test applies to acts before or after charged offense)
State v. Jones, 297 Ga. 156 (2015) (abuse-of-discretion standard for admitting other-acts evidence)
Booth v. State, 301 Ga. 678 (2017) (three-pronged 404(b) admissibility test)
Manning v. State, 303 Ga. 723 (2018) (application of 404(b) framework)
McKelvin v. State, 305 Ga. 39 (2019) (guidance on Eleventh Circuit precedents under Evidence Code)
Smith v. State, 299 Ga. 424 (harmless-error standard for nonconstitutional errors)
Fletcher v. State, 303 Ga. 43 (harmless-error review methodology)
Willis v. State, 304 Ga. 122 (plain-error standard for jury instruction challenges)
Cunningham v. State, 304 Ga. 789 (evidence of attempts to silence witnesses bears on consciousness of guilt)
Stripling v. State, 304 Ga. 131 (2018) (Strickland standard discussion in Georgia context)