Williams v. State, 299 Ga. 209

On May 5, 2007 Dorunte Williams, acting paranoid and armed, assaulted his girlfriend Teresa Dubose and later shot Stacy Barnett at a party; Barnett died eight days later.
After the shooting Williams fled; he was later arrested and convicted of malice murder, aggravated assault (family violence), and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He appealed only the hearsay ruling.
At trial Tarvarious Williams (Barnett’s cousin) testified that Barnett told him earlier that day Appellant had asked Barnett about Barnett’s relationship with Dubose and that Barnett felt “weird” and unsafe around Appellant.
That testimony was undisputed hearsay; the State admitted it under the former Georgia necessity exception to hearsay (former OCGA § 24-3-1(b)).
The court evaluated the three necessity factors: declarant unavailability (Barnett was deceased), relevance/more probative than other evidence (to show motive), and particularized guarantees of trustworthiness (relationship, timing, lack of apparent motive to lie).
The trial court admitted the statement; the Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed, holding the necessity exception’s requirements were met and the trial court did not abuse its discretion.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility under necessity hearsay exception	Tarvarious’s testimony was improperly admitted; State failed to show the statement was more probative than other evidence and lacked particularized guarantees of trustworthiness	Statement was necessary to prove motive (Appellant believed Barnett involved with Dubose); Barnett unavailable; indicia of trustworthiness existed (close relationship, timing, no motive to lie)	Court affirmed admission: declarant unavailable; statement relevant and more probative; trustworthiness sufficient; no abuse of discretion

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of the evidence review)
Vega v. State, 285 Ga. 32 (jury resolves credibility and conflicts in evidence)
McNaughton v. State, 290 Ga. 894 (articulating three-part necessity hearsay test)
Rai v. State, 297 Ga. 472 (relevance of victim’s statements to defendant’s motive and trustworthiness factors)
Gibson v. State, 290 Ga. 6 (trial court discretion in assessing trustworthiness)
Thompson v. State, 294 Ga. 693 (trustworthiness enhanced by close personal relationship between declarant and witness)
Wright v. State, 276 Ga. 454 (timing of statements shortly after the events supports trustworthiness)