S21A0953. HARRIS v. THE STATE.
S21A0953
In the Supreme Court of Georgia
October 5, 2021
BOGGS, Presiding
BOGGS, Presiding Justice.
Appellant Antonio Harris challenges his 2011 convictions for felony murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of Marcus Simpson and the non-fatal shootings of Kingston Ridley and Kenneth Williams. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion for directed verdict of acquittal and that he was dеnied the effective assistance of counsel. We affirm.1
1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury‘s verdicts, the evidence at trial showed the following. In April 2008, Appellant, a first offender probationer, rented one side of a duplex on Fletcher Street in Fulton County. The following month, Appellant and his younger brother, Rontryuаs Harris, hired Victor Powell to illegally run a cable television line to Appellant‘s side of the duplex. Powell climbed a nearby utility pole and connectеd the main cable line to a line going to Appellant‘s side of the duplex. Several weeks later, Appellant complained to Powell that the cable was not working. Powell returned to the duplex, climbed back up the utility pole, and saw that the main cable line had been connected to a line going to the other side of the duplex, where Ridley lived with his girlfriend
On the evening of July 1, 2008, Ridley, Simpson, Williams, and two other men were sitting on the front porch of Ridley‘s side of the duplex drinking beer and eating pizza. Appellant and his cousin, Geno West, came out of Aрpellant‘s unit, and one of them said, “Why y‘all motherf**kers tear down our cable?” Ridley responded, “Ain‘t nobody took none of your cable.” Appellant and West then pulled out guns and started shooting at Ridley and his friends, who were not armed. Simpson was hit in the head and torso, killing him. Ridley was hit in the thigh, and Williams was hit in the knee.
At trial Ridley and Williams both testified that Appellant and West shot at Ridley, Williams, and Simpson that night. Six 9 millimeter cartridge cases that were fired from one gun and five .380 cartridge cases that were fired from a second gun were recovered from the scene.
Appellant testified at trial as follows: On the night of the shooting, he was armed and selling drugs out of an aрartment a few blocks from the duplex when Rontryuas called and asked Appellant to let some of Rontryuas’ friends use Appellant‘s apartment on Fletcher Street. West rode with him to the duplex, and Appellant left his gun in the car while he went up onto his front porch and let Rontryuas’ friends inside. Appellant then sat in a сhair on the porch on his side of the duplex and was talking on his cell phone with the mother of his child when he heard Ridley say, “Man[,] f**k y‘all pu**y a** ni**as,” followed by the sound оf gunfire. He did not know who was shooting but he immediately ran, hid behind his car until the shooting stopped, and then got into his car and left; he claimed that he did not know where West went. Appellant acknowledged that he went into hiding when his mother told him that the police were looking for him in connection with the shooting. On cross-examination, Appellant admitted that when he was arrested in February 2009, he gave the arresting officers a fake name and date of birth.
2. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for directed verdict of acquittal at the close of the State‘s case, because the evidence was legally insufficient tо support his convictions. We review the denial of a directed verdict of acquittal under the same standard that we use to evaluate the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction. See Smith v. State, 304 Ga. 752, 754 (822 SE2d 220) (2018) (citation omitted); see also Stratacos v. State, 293 Ga. 401, 412 (748 SE2d 828) (2013). When properly viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence presented аt trial and summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find Appellant guilty of the crimes for which he was convicted. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979); Vega v. State, 285 Ga. 32, 33 (673 SE2d 223) (2009) (“It was for the jury to detеrmine the credibility of the witnesses and to resolve any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence.” (citation omitted)). See also
3. Appellant also contends he was denied the effective assistance of counsel. To
Appellant argues that his trial counsel was constitutionally deficient in failing to investigate whether the shots that killed Simpson were fired from Apрellant‘s gun. As noted above, however, it was not necessary for the State to prove that Appellant personally fired the fatal shots for him to be convicted of felony murder. In any event, at the motion for new trial hearing, Appellant did not present any evidence to establish what a hypothetical investigation by his counsel would have shown, much less that it would have been helpful to his defense. Thus, Appellant has failed to prove prejudice, even if trial counsel‘s investigation were actually deficient. See Long v. State, 309 Ga. 721, 728 (848 SE2d 91) (2020) (holding that in order to establish prejudice from counsel‘s failure to adequately investigate, a defendant must “at least make a proffer as to what additional investigation would have uncovered” (citation omitted)). Accordingly, Appellant‘s ineffective assistance of counsel claim fails.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.