Williams v. StateWilliams v. State
Michael Williams a/k/a Michael Hartsfield appeals his conviction of armed robbery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and possession of a firearm by a felon. He enumerates as error that his conviction was contrary to law and inadequacy of counsel in violation of his rights under the Sixth Amendment. Held:
1. Appellant asserts his conviction was contrary to law because the evidence, particularly his alibi evidence, shows he is innocent of the charges of which he was convicted. Thus, in essence, appellant is claiming insufficiency of the evidence. Appellant, in addition to asserting the strength of his own alibi defense, attacks the adequacy of the in-court identification of appellant by the victims of the crimes averred. However, appellant concedes that, with the exception of Ms. Russell, the victims identified appellant from their recollection of the criminal incident; further, appellant’s trial counsel posed no objection to the identification testimony of the State’s witnesses. “ ‘All evidence is admitted as a matter of course unless a valid ground of objection is (timely) interposed.’ [Cit.]”
Scott v. State,
The claims asserted in appellant’s brief in support of this enumeration are the sole claims preserved for appellate review as to this matter. “Any issue reasonably contained within an enumeration of error as to which there has not been any argument or citation of authority made in appellant’s brief is deemed abandoned on appeal.”
Moore v. Winn-Dixie Stores,
On appeal, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to support the verdict, and appellant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence; moreover, an appellate court determines evidence sufficiency and does not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility.
Grant v. State,
2. Appellant’s enumeration of error that his Sixth Amendment rights were violated by inadequacy of counsel is without merit. The proper test to be applied to this issue is a two-part test; that is, “a showing must be made that counsel was deficient, and that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense.”
Timberlake v. State,
Appellant makes a general assertion that his trial defense counsel had inadequate time to prepare before trial. “There exists no specified amount of time which a counsel must spend in preparation for trial; each situation must be judged upon its own circumstances and in light of its own degree of complexity.”
Datz v. State,
Appellant contends that his counsel was deficient in failing to file any pretrial motions; however, appellant makes no showing how he was prejudiced by such failure. Suffice it to say that appellant has the burden to demonstrate that his counsel was deficient in any particular phase of representation. See
Rachell v. State,
Appellant contends trial counsel erred in failing to object to the pretrial and in-court identification testimony of the victims. Our examination of the record reveals that the questioned evidence was admissible. We find that each of the victim’s, including Ms. Russell’s, in-court identification of appellant had an “independent origin” within the meaning of
Munn v. State,
Appellant contends that his trial counsel was professionally deficient in refusing to allow him to testify notwithstanding his desire to do so. Trial counsel testified that he presented seven alibi witnesses whose testimony he considered to be more believable than the appellant’s; counsel concluded that the jury would either acquit appellant based on its belief of appellant’s seven alibi witnesses or would not believe the defense at all even with appellant testifying as the eighth alibi witness. Trial counsel “did not feel [appellant] was a good witness.” As a result, trial counsel “merely advised [appellant] that [counsel] did not think that it was to [appellant’s] advantage for him to testify, and [appellant] agreed with that.” Trial counsel further testified that he does not make the ultimate decision whether a client will testify. Appellant made an in-court concession (compare
Hargroves v. State,
Appellant’s remaining assertions of deficient professional representation by trial counsel fail to meet the first prong of the
Strickland
test. “There is a strong presumption that trial counsel’s performance falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance, and that any challenged action by trial counsel might be considered sound trial strategy.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.)
Ferrell v. State,
Assuming arguendo that appellant had established his trial counsel’s professional representation was deficient in one or more ways asserted on appeal, he has nevertheless failed to carry his burden to establish how his defense was prejudiced thereby. Notwithstanding his aggressive alibi defense, our exhaustive examination of the record and transcript establishes that “appellant’s conviction resulted not from any deficiency in his legal representation but from the overwhelming evidence of his guilt.”
Norris v. State,
Judgment affirmed.