West v. State, 305 Ga. 467

On Feb. 2, 2012, Nicolas Jackson II was fatally shot during a home invasion; multiple men left in a silver van and a laptop was taken. Several suspects, including Reco (Rico) West, were arrested shortly after a police stop of that van.
Eyewitness (Nikia Jackson) identified West from a photographic lineup the day after the shooting; GBI testing found gunshot residue on West and three co-defendants; a 9mm bullet recovered from the victim matched a Jiminez 9mm found near the van.
Co-defendant Timothy Johnson testified that West entered the house armed as part of a planned burglary/robbery; other participants and physical evidence tied several defendants to the entry.
While jailed during trial, recorded phone calls showed a podmate (Cameron Kemp) instructing his mother to create a fake Facebook account and message a named juror to influence her; Kemp said West was next to him and that West and the juror had been "silent talking."
The trial court (over defense objection) admitted the call recordings and related testimony as evidence of a conspiracy/attempt to influence a juror; the court excused the targeted juror and questioned the rest. West was convicted of malice murder and other counts and sentenced to life without parole on malice murder; appellate challenges followed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of jail calls alleging conspiracy/attempt to influence a juror (extrinsic-act evidence under OCGA § 24-4-404(b))	State: calls are admissible as extrinsic evidence relevant to consciousness of guilt and conspiracy to influence a juror	West: calls are impermissible character evidence, irrelevant, and unduly prejudicial under Rules 404(b)/403	Court: Evidence admissible under 404(b); relevant to consciousness of guilt; probative value not substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice; no abuse of discretion
Sufficiency of evidence for armed robbery and felony murder predicated on armed robbery	West: evidence insufficient to support jury's guilty verdicts on armed robbery and felony murder predicated on armed robbery	State: presented eyewitness ID, co-defendant testimony, physical evidence, GBI residue, and recovered weapons/laptop	Court: Felony-murder count predicated on armed robbery was vacated by operation of law as malice murder conviction stands; armed-robbery sentencing merged and thus claim of insufficiency is moot

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (sufficiency review standard for conviction)
Lucky v. State, 286 Ga. 478 (vacatur of felony-murder where malice murder conviction obtained)
Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (merger principles between felony murder and underlying felonies)
Jones v. State, 301 Ga. 544 (three-part test for admission of other-act evidence under Rule 404(b))
Dixon v. State, 302 Ga. 691 (appellate discretion to correct merger errors benefiting defendant)
Atkins v. State, 304 Ga. 413 (Rule 403 as exception to Rule 404(b) inclusivity)
Anglin v. State, 302 Ga. 333 (attempts to influence/intimidate a witness as circumstantial evidence of guilt)
United States v. Padilla, 203 F.3d 156 (conspiracy to obstruct justice relevant to consciousness of guilt)
United States v. Monahan, 633 F.2d 984 (evidence implicating witness threats not unfairly prejudicial when probative)
United States v. Gonzalez, 703 F.2d 1222 (threats to witnesses admissible under Rule 404(b) where probative)
De La Cruz-Feliciano, 786 F.3d 78 (witness threats probative of consciousness of guilt)