Jackson v. StateJackson v. State
LAGRUA, Justice.
Aрpellant Philemon Shark Jackson was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of Clyde Weeks. On appeal, Appellant contends that the evidence was legally insufficient to support his convictions; that the trial court erred in allowing an unredacted 911 call containing hearsay testimony into evidence; and that the trial court erred in refusing to charge the jury on sympathy, despite a request by the defense.1 For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
Meanwhile, Ferguson‘s mother, Williams, was inside the house. When Champion‘s car pulled into the driveway around 5:00 p.m., Williams asked Ferguson to tell Champion to leave. Ferguson went outside, but a few minutes later, he ran back inside the house, telling Williams there was a fight and Appellant had a gun. Williams looked outside and saw Weeks and Appellant “boxing” in the cul-de-sac. Ferguson tried to go back outside, but Williams stood in front of the door to block his exit. Williams then heard a “gun go off,” firing “at least three, maybe three or four” times. She did not see who fired the weapon because she was “tussling” with Ferguson at the time, attempting to keep him inside the house. Right after hearing the gunshots, at approximately 5:25 p.m., Williаms called 911. While Williams was on the phone with the 911 operator, she saw Weeks lying on the ground on his back beside her car, trying to breathe. During the 911 call, Williams stated that she had heard three gunshots and “somebody got shot” in front of her house. Williams asked for an ambulance and provided Weeks‘s name and age. The 911 operator asked who did it, and Williams asked Ferguson the same question. Ferguson responded, “Philemon.” The 911 operator then asked if Williams had a description “to help the police out,” and Williams asked Ferguson, “Do you have a description of who did this?” Ferguson again responded, “Philemon.” Williams told the 911 operator, “He, they know who did it, Philemon.”
John O‘Brock, a neighbor who lived one house over, heard four or five gunshots between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. He looked out the window and saw a blue Dodge Dart driving away, slowly at first and then speeding down the street. At approximately 5:30 p.m., police officers arrived at the scene of the shooting. They found Weeks, who was still alive, lying on his back in the side yard of Ferguson‘s house. Champion was attending to Weeks, holding a makeshift compress against his abdomen to try to stop the bleeding. Emergency medical
Police officers spoke to several witnesses, including Champion, Smith, Ferguson, and O‘Brock, at the crime scene. Based upon these statements, officers went to Appellant‘s residence that night. Appellant was detained and taken to the police department to be interviewed. Appellant agreed to waive his Miranda3 rights and gave a statement to police officers. During the interview, Appellant stated that he did not know about the shooting, had been with his mother in Savannah all day, and did not return to Hinesvillе until about 4:45 or 5:00 p.m. Appellant denied being anywhere near Ferguson‘s house or the surrounding neighborhood that day and stated that after he returned from Savannah, he did not leave his home again. The police noted that Appellant had a bruise under his right eye, and when asked about it, Appellant stated that it happened a week or so earlier. At the conclusion of the intеrview, Appellant was arrested.
The next day, February 16, police officers returned to the scene and found a .22-caliber shell casing in the yard next to Ferguson‘s house, about ten feet from where Weeks was shot. Police officers also obtained a video recording from a security camera located on a house nearby. The recording showed a blue Dodge Dаrt, matching the description of Appellant‘s vehicle, driving into the neighborhood toward the cul-de-sac at approximately 5:19 p.m. on February 15. Six minutes later, the recording showed the same blue Dodge Dart leaving the neighborhood. After obtaining search warrants, police officers went to Appellant‘s residence to photograph and search Appellant‘s vehiсle. Appellant‘s vehicle matched the vehicle shown in the video recording because, among other similarities, both had a broken right tail light. Police officers also recovered a cell phone registered to Appellant inside the car. The cell phone records showed that Appellant‘s phone transmitted signals exclusively in Hinesville throughout the day of Februаry 15, demonstrating that Appellant did not travel to Savannah.
2. Appellant contends that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his convictions under the standard set forth in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (99 S. Ct. 2781, 61 L. Ed. 2d 560) (1979), because the only person who identified Appellant as the shooter was Ferguson, who was not outside when the shooting occurred and disappeared soon after the shooting.4 Appellant also asserts that Ferguson‘s statements were hearsay and were admitted over his objection at trial (which will be addressed in Division 3 below).
When evaluating challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence as a matter of constitutional due process, “we view the evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the verdicts and ask whether any rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which he was convicted.” Boyd v. State, 306 Ga. 204, 207 (1) (830 SE2d 160) (2019) (citing Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, and Jones v. State, 304 Ga. 594, 598 (820 SE2d 696) (2018)). “It is the jury‘s role to resolve conflicts in the evidence and determine the credibility of witnesses.” Smith v. State, 280 Ga. 161, 162 (1) (625 SE2d 766) (2006). “This Court does not reweigh evidence or resolve conflicts in testimony; instead, evidence is reviewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, with deference tо the jury‘s assessment of the weight and credibility of the evidence.” Harris v. State, 304 Ga. 276, 278 (1) (818 SE2d 530) (2018) (citations and punctuation omitted). Thus, when we consider the sufficiency of evidence, we “consider all of the evidence admitted by the trial court, regardless of whether that evidence
Appellant further contends that all of the evidence presented by the State was circumstantial, with the exception of the hearsay testimony of Ferguson. See
Questions as to the reasonableness of hypotheses are generally to be decided by the jury which heard the evidence and where the jury is authorized to find that the evidence, though circumstantial, was sufficient to exclude every other reasonable hypothesis save that of guilt, that finding will not be disturbed unless the verdict of guilty is insuppоrtable as a matter of law.
Smith, 280 Ga. at 162 (citations and punctuation omitted) (holding that the evidence, which included statements from several witnesses who saw the defendant with a gun prior to the shooting and then heard gunshots fired from the location where the victim‘s body was ultimately found, was sufficient to support the jury‘s finding of guilt). Moreover, if there is any direct evidence presented by the State, the cirсumstantial evidence statute does not apply to a sufficiency analysis. See
In this case, the evidence against Appellant was not wholly circumstantial, as the State presented direct evidence in the form of Ferguson‘s statements during the 911 call, identifying Appellant as the person who shot Weeks. However, even if this were a wholly circumstantial case, the evidenсe was sufficient to authorize the jury “to exclude every other reasonable hypothesis save that of guilt.”
3. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in allowing, over objection, the recording of Williams‘s 911 call to be played in its entirety during trial. We disagree.
Prior to trial, Appellant filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude certain portions of the 911 recording. Specifically, Appellant objected to the admission of the statements Ferguson made during the 911 call in response to Williams‘s questions from the 911 operator because Ferguson was not available to testify at trial.5 The State argued that Ferguson‘s statements were admissible under the hearsay exceptions for excited utterances and present sense impressions. See
Subsequently, in the trial court‘s order denying Appellant‘s motion for new trial, the court ruled that Ferguson‘s statements during the 911 call were admissible under the hearsay exceptions for excited utterances and present sense impressions in
The fоllowing shall not be excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is available as a witness:
(1) Present sense impression. A statement describing or explaining an event or condition made while the declarant was perceiving the event or condition or immediately thereafter; (2) Excited utterance. A statement relating to a startling event or condition made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event or condition[.]
Although Appellant raised both hearsay and Confrontation Clause claims in his motion for new trial, he raises only hearsay arguments on appeal, and thus, we address only those arguments. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in finding that the statements made by Ferguson during the 911 call were admissible under either the present sense impression or excited utterance hearsay exceptions. Specifically, Appellant asserts that Ferguson‘s statements could not constitute a present sense impression because Ferguson was not outside when the shooting took place, and he could not have witnessed or “personally perceived” the shooting. Appеllant further asserts that Ferguson‘s statements were not admissible as excited utterances because no circumstances existed to suggest that any of the statements Ferguson made to Williams were excited or spontaneous, and there was no indication that Ferguson was nervous, excited, in shock, or in a distraught state of mind so as to render him incapable of normal reflectivе thought. On this basis, Appellant asserts that Ferguson‘s statements were inadmissible hearsay and should have been redacted from the 911 call, and the trial court erred in failing to redact them, resulting in harm to Appellant. We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the 911 recording into evidence at trial under the excited utterance exception. See McCord v. State, 305 Ga. 318, 324 (2) (a) (ii) (825 SE2d 122) (2019).
“The excitеd utterance exception provides that ‘[a] statement relating to a startling event or condition made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event or condition’ shall not be excluded by the hearsay rule.” Atkins v. State, 310 Ga. 246, 250 (2) (850 SE2d 103) (2020) (quoting
4. Appellant contends that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to charge the jury on sympathy. Appellant asserts that he requested the sympathy charge during the charge conference; the trial court advised that it did not intend to give this charge; and Appellant objected after the final charge was given, preserving the issue for review. We conclude this contention is without merit.
The decision ovеr whether to give a cautionary charge to the jurors, informing them that they should not be influenced by sympathy or prejudice in reaching a verdict, is a matter generally addressed to the sound discretion of the trial judge. Cautionary instructions are not favored since in most instances they are productive of confusion and tend to restrict the jury‘s untrammeled consideration of the cаse.
Where nothing in the record indicates that any improper circumstance was injected into the case, and the charge of the court fully and accurately instructed the jury on the issues involved, a new trial will not be granted because of the refusal of the court to give a cautionary request.
Fincher v. State, 289 Ga. App. 64, 68 (3) (656 SE2d 216) (2007) (citation and punctuation omitted).
Given that Appellant failed to point to any specific evidence in the record or to any incidents that arose during trial to support giving the requested cautionary sympathy charge, we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in declining to give the cautionary charge Appellant requested. See Favors v. State, 305 Ga. 366, 369-370 (3) (825 SE2d 164) (2019). Accordingly, this final enumeration of error fails.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.