Williams v. State, 304 Ga. 455

Background

On May 24, 2015, Travious Floyd was shot and later died after a confrontation following a nightclub incident; Williams was in a vehicle (a Challenger) from which he admitted firing a gun. Rickman, in the front seat, also fired a gun. Travious was unarmed.
Williams testified he fired one shot into the air to scare the Floyds because he thought one of them had a gun; he acknowledged poor visibility and tinted windows and that the Floyds were actually unarmed.
Williams was indicted (with Rickman) on murder, felony murder (predicated on aggravated assault and aggravated battery), multiple aggravated assaults, aggravated battery, criminal damage to property, and a firearms possession count; some counts were later nolle prossed.
A jury acquitted Williams of malice murder, aggravated battery, and five aggravated-assault counts, but convicted him of felony murder (life), two aggravated assaults (20-year concurrent terms), criminal damage to property (5 years concurrent), and a firearms count (5 years consecutive).
Williams appealed, arguing ineffective assistance for failure to request a jury charge on defense of habitation and claiming plain error in two jury instructions (character evidence and an erroneous reference to criminal damage to property when charging felony murder).

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Williams)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
Ineffective assistance — failure to request habitation instruction	Williams: counsel was ineffective for not requesting defense-of-habitation jury charge based on testimony that Floyds attacked Gibbs in his Mustang	State: habitation charge was not clearly applicable; defense would require extending precedent to protect another's habitation; counsel not deficient for declining novel charge	Court: No ineffective assistance — counsel not deficient for failing to pursue a novel/unsettled extension of law
Plain error — character-evidence instruction	Williams: court should have told jurors that good character may create reasonable doubt	State: court gave substantially identical language to the current pattern jury instruction	Court: No plain error — pattern charge adequate and not obviously erroneous
Plain error — mention of criminal damage when charging felony murder	Williams: passing mention could have allowed felony-murder conviction predicated on property damage (not alleged)	State: though reference was erroneous, jury was given correct indictment, other correct felony-murder instructions, and verdicts show jury relied on aggravated assault predicate	Court: Error was not plain or harmful — did not likely affect outcome
Ineffective assistance based on failure to object to instructions	Williams: counsel’s failure to object to the two instructions was ineffective assistance	State: harm test for plain error aligns with prejudice test for ineffective assistance; no prejudice shown	Court: No relief — failure to show prejudice under Strickland/Martin standards

Key Cases Cited

Rickman v. State, 304 Ga. 61, 816 S.E.2d 4 (summary of underlying facts used at trial)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (legal-sufficiency standard)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (ineffective-assistance standard)
Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365 (counsel-performance standards)
Gomez v. State, 301 Ga. 445, 801 S.E.2d 847 (declining to require counsel to pursue unsettled legal theories)
Fair v. State, 288 Ga. 244, 702 S.E.2d 420 (scope of habitation defense)
Coleman v. State, 286 Ga. 291, 687 S.E.2d 427 (habitation-defense principles)
Hobbs v. State, 288 Ga. 551, 705 S.E.2d 147 (character-charge context)
DuBose v. State, 299 Ga. 652, 791 S.E.2d 9 (plain-error review standard)
Simmons v. State, 299 Ga. 370, 788 S.E.2d 494 (pattern instruction sufficiency)
Martin v. State, 298 Ga. 259, 779 S.E.2d 342 (relation of plain error and ineffective-assistance prejudice tests)
Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369, 434 S.E.2d 479 (merger of lesser counts into felony murder)