Burchfield v. StateBurchfield v. State
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Roger Dale Burchfield was convicted of armed robbery,
1. Burchfield contends the evidence did not support the verdict. Construed in favor of the verdict, the evidence showed that on December 30, 1993, Burchfield entered a convenience store in which Vanessa Cooper was working. He pulled out a gun and told Cooper and her friends Beth Underwood and Tommy Coleman they were being robbed. After threatening to “blow their brains out” if they did not cooperate, he then pointed the gun at Cooper and told her to give him money. Coleman told Burchfield not to hurt Cooper, to which Burch-field replied, cursing, “Don’t look at me . . . I’ll blow your brains out.” He also instructed Underwood and
The testimony of Coleman and Underwood was essentially the same as Cooper’s testimony. Underwood testified Burchfield threatened to kill Coleman several times and that he told all of them at one point, “I’ll blow every blanking one of you away,” and that he also stated, “I should just shoot the — out of all three of you.”
The record shows that Burchfield was heavily intoxicated when he was apprehended by the police. One of the officers responding to the call regarding the robbery, Don Bruce, testified Burchfield was too intoxicated to be interviewed when he was initially apprehended, and he decided to wait until later to conduct an interview. Patty Marriott, Burchfield’s girl friend, testified that on the morning of December 29, and the preceding two mornings, she had put Lorazepam pills in Burchfield’s coffee without his knowledge. She had “slipped” him the prescription drugs because he was depressed. She told Burchfield about the drugs only three days before his trial, however, and she never reported her activities to law enforcement because “[t]hat had nothing to do with me.”
While “[v]oluntary intoxication is not an excuse for any criminal act,”
Bailey v. State,
198 Ga. App. 632, 633 (2) (402 SE2d 363) (1991);
Despite Marriott’s testimony regarding the drugs she allegedly placed in Burchfield’s coffee, there was evidence from which a rational trier of fact could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Burch-field was guilty of the crimes charged against him under the standard set forth in
Jackson v. Virginia,
443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). Marriott’s testimony was not conclusive evidence that Burchfield’s intoxication was involuntary. Testimony was also presented that he had drunk at least three beers in the early afternoon and consumed a substantial amount of liquor. He admitted no one forced him to drink the alcohol. While Marriott’s testimony allowed the jury to consider the involuntary intoxication defense available under
Moreover, a defendant relying on an involuntary intoxication defense must establish he was unable to distinguish right from wrong. Rauschenberg v. State, 161 Ga. App. 331 (291 SE2d 58) (1982). Burchfield’s testimony reveals that he had some capacity to distinguish right from wrong prior to robbing the store. He testified that on the evening of the robbery, he was in a car with his cousin, who suggested robbery to him. Burchfield told him, “[Y]ou are crazy, I’m not robbing no store.” This evidence supports a finding by a rational trier of fact that Burchfield could distinguish right from wrong at some time before robbing the store. See Swenson v. State, 196 Ga. App. 898 (1) (397 SE2d 211) (1990). A question remained for jury determination whether Burchfield later made a conscious decision to rob the store (or became voluntarily intoxicated) after making the comment to his cousin or whether Marriott’s alleged administration of medication involuntarily intoxicated him. The jury was properly instructed as to involuntary intoxication and decided this question against Burchfield. The evidence supports the jury’s determination.
2. Contending he was still in an intoxicated state when he gave an in-custody statement on December 30,1993, Burchfield asserts the trial court erred in admitting the statement into evidence. We disagree. The officer who took the statement interviewed Burchfield at approximately 11:00 a.m. the next morning, approximately ten hours after he was arrested, and he testified to Burchfield’s
Judgment affirmed.
Birdsong, P. J., and Johnson, J., concur.