Lead Opinion
Fоllowing a jury trial, Lester Casey Griffin was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on misdemeanor battery as a lesser included offense of malice murder, felony murder, two counts of cruelty to children, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault.
1. In the light most favorable to the verdict, the record shows that, on June 28, 2009, two-year-old Dylan Helmey was at home with his younger half-brother, Jaiden, and Griffin, who was babysitting.
This evidence was sufficient to enable the jury to find Griffin guilty of the crimes for which he was convictеd beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia,
2. In his sole enumeration of error, Griffin argues that his convictions must be reversed becausе the verdicts were mutually exclusive. Specifically, Griffin maintains that the verdicts were inconsistent because the jury considered the blow to Dylan’s chest a misdemeanor for the purposes of the involuntary manslaughter verdict and a felony offense for the purposes of the felony murder verdicts. As a result, Griffin contends that all of his convictions must be reversed, see Jackson v. State,
“Vеrdicts are mutually exclusive ‘where a guilty verdict on one count logically excludes a finding of guilt on the other. (Cits.)’ [Cits.]” Jackson v. State, [supra,276 Ga. at 410 (2)]. While guilty verdicts оn involuntary manslaughter and felony murder are not mutually exclusive as a matter of law, Smith v. State,267 Ga. 372 (6) (477 SE2d 827 ) (1996), a mutually exclusive verdict may be rendered in a particular case where the offenses underlying the felony murder and involuntary manslaughter convictions “reflect that the jury, in order to find the defendant guilty [of both offenses], necessarily reached two positive findings of fact that cannot logically mutually exist.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Flores v. State,277 Ga. 780 , 783 (3) (596 SE2d 114 ) (2004). A mutually exclusive verdict results when the jury finds that the defendant acted with both criminal intent and criminal negligence at the same instant regarding the same victim involving the same act. See id. (finding mutually exclusive vеrdict where appellant was found guilty of both*417 felony murder based on aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter based оn reckless conduct as to a single homicide victim).
Drake v. State, 288 Ga. 131, 133 (2) (
if the predicate offense found by the jury for involuntary manslaughter was simрle battery or battery, which are misdemeanor offenses committed with criminal intent, see OCGA §§ 16-5-23 (a), 16-5-23.1 (a), then the intent element of the battery offenses would be logically consistent with the mens rea required for the felony offense of cruelty to childrеn on which appellant’s felony murder conviction is predicated. See OCGA § 16-5-70 (b); Carter v. State,269 Ga. 420 (5) (499 SE2d 63 ) (1998) (involuntary manslaughter based on simple battery not inconsistent with felony murder based on cruelty to children).
Id. at 133-134 (2).
This precedent controls the result in this case. In addition to involuntаry manslaughter based on simple battery, Griffin was found guilty of felony murder predicated on cruelty to a child, felony murder prediсated on aggravated battery, and felony murder predicated on aggravated assault.
Because the prediсate offense for involuntary manslaughter was simple battery, it did not require proof of criminal negligence, and the intent element of simple battery was not at all logically inconsistent with the mens rea required for the greater offense of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, or cruelty to children.
(Citations omitted.) Waits v. State,
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
Griffin was indicted on September 21, 2009, by the Effingham County grand jury for malice murder, felony murder predicated on cruelty to a сhild, felony murder predicated on aggravated battery, felony murder predicated on aggravated assault, aggravаted battery, aggravated assault, and two counts of cruelty to children for two different acts. At a jury trial in November 2010, Griffin was found guilty оf involuntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense of malice murder and guilty of all other charges. Griffin was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for felony murder predicated on cruelty to children, and twenty consecutive years for one of the cruelty to children counts. The remaining charges were merged for purposes of sentencing. On Deсember 28,2010, Griffin filed a motion for new trial, which he amended on March 26, 2014. The trial court denied the motion on the day it was amended. Griffin filed a timely notice of appeal, and his case, submitted for decision on the briefs, was docketed to the Seрtember 2014 term of this Court.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion in full, including its conclusion that the jury’s guilty verdict on the count of involuntary manslaughter based оn simple battery, a crime requiring criminal intent, is obviously not mutually exclusive of the guilty verdicts on the other counts, which also required findings of criminal intent. Because this case does not involve any crime of criminal negligence, it is not necessary for the
Since the Court does so, however, I again note the serious doubts that I, joined by Justice Blackwell, have recently expressed about the legal and logical basis of that proposition, whiсh this Court first endorsed in Jackson v. State,