BENTON v. THE STATE.
S17A0355
Supreme Court of Georgia
May 1, 2017
301 Ga. 100
MELTON, Presiding Justice.
FINAL COPY
Following a jury trial, Freedell Benton (III) was found guilty of malice murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and various other offenses in connection with the shooting death of Drexel Berry.1 On appeal, Benton
1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the record shows that, on May 29, 2013, Benton and his co-defendant, Quantavious Guffie, were part of a group of 15 to 20 people hanging around an apartment complex located at 574 Cooper Street. The victim, Berry, arrived at the complex with Joshua Smith, looking to purchase some marijuana. The group informed Berry that they had no marijuana to sell, and Berry began to leave. One of the members of the group, Antoine Jester, was wheelchair bound, and informed others, including Benton, that Berry had played a role in putting Jester in a wheelchair, because Berry was one of the individuals involved in a prior shooting that had paralyzed Jester. After speaking with Jester, Benton stepped into the street to flag down Smith’s car and prevent Berry from leaving.
Two eyewitnesses from the apartment complex who saw the men near the courtyard stated that following a brief discussion between the three men, Berry began to run, while Benton and Guffie pursued and fired guns at Berry.2 The three ran out of the witnesses’ sight, but more shots could be heard coming from the courtyard. A few minutes later, only Benton and Guffie emerged from the stairwell leading to the courtyard.
A police officer found Berry at a house located at 580 Pryor Street. Berry had moved from the apartment complex to the house, leaving a blood trail back to the courtyard where police found ten 9mm shell casings and one .380 caliber shell casing. Berry had been shot three times, once in the arm, once in the leg, and once in the back. Police found Berry drifting in and out of consciousness,
The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Benton guilty of all the crimes of which he was convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). See also
2. Although the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s guilty verdicts, we have noted an error with respect to the merger of certain counts for sentencing purposes. Specifically, the trial court purported to merge the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon count against Benton into the malice murder count against him for sentencing purposes. However, “possession of a firearm by a convicted felon does not merge into a conviction
3. Benton claims that the trial court erred by allowing jurors to submit questions to be posed to the witnesses. However, it is well established that, “[w]hile jurors in Georgia courts may not ask questions of witnesses directly, a trial court may receive written questions from the jury and ask those questions which the court finds proper, or allow counsel for either party to ask a testifying witness the questions found to be proper.” Allen v. State, 286 Ga. 392, 396 (3) (687 SE2d 799) (2010). See also Hernandez v. State, 299 Ga. 796, 799 (2) (792 SE2d 373) (2016). Here, the written questions were properly reviewed by
To the extent that Benton argues that the trial court erred by failing to use the exact words that the jurors used in their written questions when the court posed the questions to the witnesses, this argument is without merit. Indeed, a trial court is not required to use the exact language of the jurors in posing their questions, as “[a] trial judge may propound questions to a witness to develop the truth of the case, to clarify testimony, to comment on pertinent evidentiary rules and to exercise its discretion when controlling the conduct of counsel or witnesses in order to enforce its duty to ensure a fair trial to both sides.” Dickens v. State, 280 Ga. 320, 324 (3) (627 SE2d 587) (2006). The judge here reviewed and approved the questions by the jurors and posed them in the manner that he believed to be most appropriate for developing the truth of the case and clarifying the witness’ testimony consistent with the jurors’ requests. In doing so, the trial court fulfilled its duty to ensure a fair trial for both sides
4. Benton contends the trial court committed plain error by admitting into evidence three autopsy photographs (Exhibits 115, 126, and 127).4 To satisfy plain error review:
First, there must be an error or defect — some sort of deviation from a legal rule — that has not been intentionally relinquished or abandoned, i.e., affirmatively waived, by the appellant. Second, the legal error must be clear or obvious, rather than subject to reasonable dispute. Third, the error must have affected the appellant‘s substantial rights, which in the ordinary case means he must demonstrate that it affected the outcome of the trial court proceedings. Fourth and finally, if the above three prongs are satisfied, the appellate court has the discretion to remedy the error — discretion which ought to be exercised only if the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.
(Citation, punctuation and emphasis omitted.) State v. Kelly, 290 Ga. 29, 33 (2) (a) (718 SE2d 232) (2011). Our determination of whether legal error exists
Under Georgia’s new Evidence Code, “[r]elevant evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.”
Here, Exhibit 127 depicted an incision the medical examiner made in a bruise to demonstrate the location of the bullet lodged in Berry’s chest cavity and the path it took through Berry’s body to cause the bruising. The photo is not particularly gory or gruesome, and it was “relevant to show the nature and location of the victim‘s injuries, which corroborated the account of the shooting given by” the eyewitnesses who saw Benton and Guffie chasing and firing at Berry from behind. Moss v. State, 298 Ga. 613, 617-618 (5) (b) (783 SE2d 652) (2016). Exhibit 126 showed an overview of the bruising caused by the
5. Benton contends that his counsel was ineffective for failing to: (1) object to a detective’s testimony on the ultimate issue in the case; (2) object to the admission of the autopsy photographs; (3) challenge a police photo array for being too suggestive; (4) disclose prior convictions that trial counsel planned to use for impeachment purposes; and (5) properly investigate the case.
In order to succeed on his claim of ineffective assistance, [Benton] must prove both that his trial counsel’s performance was deficient and that there is a reasonable probability that the trial result would have been different if not for the deficient performance. Strickland
v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (104 SC 2052, 80 LE2d 674) (1984). If an appellant fails to meet his or her burden of proving either prong of the Strickland test, the reviewing court does not have to examine the other prong. Id. at 697 (IV); Fuller v. State, 277 Ga. 505 (3) (591 SE2d 782) (2004). In reviewing the trial court‘s decision, “‘[w]e accept the trial court’s factual findings and credibility determinations unless clearly erroneous, but we independently apply the legal principles to the facts.’ [Cit.]” Robinson v. State, 277 Ga. 75, 76 (586 SE2d 313) (2003).
Wright v. State, 291 Ga. 869, 870 (2) (734 SE2d 876) (2012).
At the motion for new trial hearing, no testimony was elicited from trial counsel as to Benton’s first four allegations of ineffective assistance. Accordingly, we must assume that trial counsel’s decisions with respect to these matters were strategic, and, because such decisions were reasonable under the circumstances, Benton’s claims of ineffective assistance of counsel on those grounds must fail. See Washington v. State, 285 Ga. 541, 543 (3) (a) (i) (678 SE2d 900) (2009) (“[I]n the absence of evidence to the contrary, counsel’s decisions are presumed to be strategic and thus insufficient to support an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.“).5
To the extent that trial counsel’s performance could have been deficient for failing to listen to the recording prior to trial, she did listen to the recording before it was introduced into evidence, and, in an effort to address the inconsistencies between the recording and Moore’s trial testimony, she
[Moore] was asking about an award [sic] [for her testimony]. [Moore] knows that she could not come into court . . . and tell anybody that [she] saw a shooting that she did not see. She said: I couldn’t see it. I told you there would be no credible eyewitness that you’d believe. . . .
Accordingly, we find no prejudice. Indeed, by attacking Moore’s credibility during her closing argument and through her cross-examination of the police detective, counsel was still able to highlight for the jury the inconsistencies between the recording and Moore’s testimony even without cross-examining her about them. See Redding v. State, 297 Ga. 845, 853 (5) (c) (778 SE2d 774) (2015).
Judgment affirmed in part and vacated in part, and case remanded for resentencing. All the Justices concur.
Decided May 1, 2017.
Akil K. Secret, for appellant.
Paul L. Howard Jr., District Attorney, Paige Reese Whitaker, Lyndsey H. Rudder, Cynthia Cartwright, F. McDonald Wakeford, Assistant District Attorneys; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Elizabeth M. Haase, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.