TURNER v. THE STATE
S14A1409
Supreme Court of Georgia
DECIDED JANUARY 20, 2015
768 SE2d 458 | 296 Ga. 394
BENHAM, Justice.
Appellant Quanitta Yvette Turner appeals her convictions related to the death of her five-week-old baby.1 Appellant asserts that her convictions should be overturned because she contends the evidence was insufficient and because she contends one of her statements to police was involuntary. For reasons set forth below, we affirm.
1. The evidence viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict shows that on the day in question, appellant called 911 to report that her baby was not breathing.
In 2010, police reopened the investigation when the baby‘s father came forward with information. He testified that appellant told him on at least three different occasions that she had held her hand over the child‘s nose and mouth until the child stopped crying and/or stopped breathing; however, the father said he did not believe appellant at the time she made the statements. In July 2010, the father posted two comments on his Facebook page stating that appellant had killed their baby. In August 2010, appellant took out a restraining order against the father, and he in turn reported her to the police in regard to their child‘s death. Police re-launched their investigation and interviewed the father and appellant. Despite authorities’ suspicions that the father was being vindictive, the father never wavered from his story that appellant told him she killed the baby on three separate occasions. During appellant‘s first interview with police, appellant initially stated she woke up to find the baby was not breathing, leaving out the detail she gave authorities in 2007 that she had rolled over on the child during the night. When police continued to question her, appellant admitted that she placed her hand over the baby‘s mouth and nose until the child stopped breathing and went back to sleep, rolling over on the child after she was already deceased. During a subsequent interview, appellant admitted striking the baby six to eight times with a television remote control because the baby would not stop crying. Both interviews, which were video-recorded, were played for the jury.2
In 2007, the medical examiner originally listed the cause and manner of the child‘s death as undetermined. At trial, the medical examiner explained that he did not rule the death as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or as Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) because of the recent injuries to the baby‘s body.3 In 2010, upon reviewing appellant‘s interviews with police, the medical examiner amended the autopsy report, and he ruled the cause of death to be smothering and the manner of death a homicide.
The evidence adduced at trial and summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which she was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).
2. Appellant contends the admissions she made during her second interview were involuntary because the investigator made misrepresentations about her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself by testifying at trial. The statements the officer made during the second interview were to the effect that appellant should tell the investigator how the baby received the injuries discovered on her body because it would be more difficult for appellant to explain them later to a jury or judge and that the court would “drill” appellant on such issues. According to appellant, the investigator‘s statements vitiated the voluntariness of her admissions. We disagree.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.
DECIDED JANUARY 20, 2015.
Anthony S. Carter, for appellant.
Layla H. Zon, District Attorney, Melanie M. Bell, Candice L. Branche, Assistant District Attorneys, Samuel S. Olens, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Vicki S. Bass, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.