Ashleigh Ricks v. Mitch Longino

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: January 8, 2019
• Docket: A19A0915
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ December 27, 2018

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A19A0915. ASHLEIGH RICKS v. MITCH LONGINO et al.

After pleading guilty to felony murder, Ashleigh Ricks filed several post- conviction motions, which the trial court denied on November 20, 2012. Ricks filed a notice of appeal from this ruling. The appeal was not transmitted, and Ricks filed a mandamus petition to compel transmission in June 2018. Two months later, the trial court transmitted the appeal to this Court. Because Ricks was convicted of felony murder, we transferred Ricks’s underlying appeal to the Supreme Court. See Case No. A18A2109 (transferred Aug. 3, 2018). After transmitting the appeal, the trial court entered an order dismissing the mandamus petition as moot on August 8, 2018. Ricks filed this appeal from the dismissal order on November 28, 2018.1 In State v. Murray, 286 Ga. 258 (687 SE2d 790) (2009), the Supreme Court held that “[i]f the underlying action is a murder case, [the Supreme] Court has jurisdiction of the appeal, regardless of whether the order being appealed is based on facts having some bearing on the underlying criminal trial.” Id. at 259 (1). See also Neal v. State, 290 Ga. 563, 572 (722 SE2d 765) (2012) (Hunstein, C. J., concurring); State v. Thornton, 253 Ga. 524, 524 (1) (322 SE2d 711) (1984) (directing this Court to transfer “all cases in which either a sentence of death or of life imprisonment has been imposed upon conviction of murder”). Because the trial court’s dismissal order was entered in a felony murder case – and because the underlying criminal appeal has

1 We dismissed Ricks’s previous appeal from the trial court’s August 8 dismissal order because of her failure to file a brief in the appeal in violation of Court of Appeals Rule 23 (a). See Case No. A19A0257 (dismissed Sept. 26, 2018). already been transferred to the Supreme Court – this appeal is likewise TRANSFERRED to the Supreme Court for disposition.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 12/27/2018 I certify that the above i s a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.