Appellant Damien Kinard Reddick was convicted of murder in connection with the shooting death of Cory Johnson.
1. “To authorize a requested jury instruction, there need only be slight evidence supporting the theory of the charge. Whether the evidence presented is sufficient to authorize the giving of a charge is a question of law.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Hicks v. State,
The evidence presented at trial showed that two female graduates of Shiloh High School, Chame Baker and Lauren Jordan, had a quarrel via telephone and social media that escalated into threats. Apparently encouraged by Jordan’s friend, Danielle O’Grady, the girls agreed to meet to settle the argument at a house near the high school. By the time they arrived, a crowd had gathered to witness the fight. The girls brought various supporters to the location: Jordan and O’Grady invited appellant and his friend Nigel Lynch, who both attended a different school. The victim was a friend of a resident of the house, Shukriyyah Bascoe, who was aligned with Baker.
In the back yard of the house, O’Grady encouraged Jordan to fight Baker, but Jordan’s boyfriend pulled her away, and O’Grady began to fight with Baker. While Bascoe was trying to separate them, an unidentified male intervened and punched Baker in the face. The victim remonstrated that he should not hit a girl, and a fight ensued as the victim and others began hitting the unidentified male who had punched Baker. During this secondary melee, shots were fired; witnesses testified to hearing as few as two or as many as six gunshots. A witness testified that she saw the shots fired, and that the shooter was holding the gun horizontally as he fired, “pointed straight ahead” even though his arm was “flailing about.” She added that the shooter then fired four more shots straight up in the air as he left. Shortly afterward, the police arrived and found the victim dead in the back yard with two gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen. The medical examiner testified that the victim’s body showed two through-and-through gunshot wounds. One entered the victim’s chest on the left side on a downward angle, penetrating his heart and one lung, and exiting the body on the right side of the back. The second shot entered the victim’s right shoulder, grazed his liver, and exited under his right armpit area, making a square exit wound that indicated the bullet was “tumbling” as it passed through the victim’s body
After the shooting began, O’Grady and her companions fled the scene but could not locate Lynch. Appellant and his female friend, Ashley Moe, waited at Lynch’s car for some time and then walked back toward the house. They found Lynch, who was bleeding severely from the head, and took him to the hospital; Lynch told them that “somebody hit him with a gun.” O’Grady testified that appellant told her that “Nigel had gotten jumped” and beaten. The witness who saw the shots fired testified that the shooter was one of two men with O’Grady’s group who came together and attempted to flee together after the shooting. The same witness testified that the shooter was the one who “ran away and left,” although she did not get a good look at his face, while his companion became involved in a fight and was left behind.
Moe told police that appellant displayed a firearm on the way to the scene and that appellant later told her he fired two rounds in the air. But she disavowed that statement at trial, saying that the only gun she saw was a long gun being held by “some dude standing outside the patio.” Appellant did not testify at trial, but in his videotaped police interview, which was played for the jury, he admitted that he brought “a green knife” to the scene, but repeatedly denied having a gun. While confined to jail, appellant had a telephone conversation with Moe which was monitored by the police; in that conversation he denied he had a gun that night, instructed Moe to say he did not have a gun, and told her to be sure that O’Grady said he did not have a gun.
Appellant argues that evidence was presented that he engaged in reckless gunplay by firing in the air, and that such an act would support a misdemeanor charge of reckless conduct, which in turn would support a charge of involuntary manslaughter under OCGA § 16-5-3 (a).
Even if the evidence presented authorized the requested charge, “[t]he failure to give a requested charge which is authorized by the evidence can be harmless error. The inquiry is whether it is highly probable that the error contributed to the verdict.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Brown v. State,
2. While Reddick does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence in his appeal, we note that it was sufficient to support his conviction under Jackson v. Virginia,
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
The crime occurred on December 28, 2011. On March 1, 2012, a Gwinnett County grand jury indicted Reddick for felony murder and aggravated assault. He was tried before a jury September 16-22, 2014. The jury found Reddick guilty on both counts, and the trial court merged the aggravated assault charge with the felony murder charge. See Malcolm v. State,
“A person commits the offense of involuntary manslaughter in the commission of an unlawful act when he causes the death of another human being without any intention to do so by the commission of an unlawful act other than a felony.”