Buford v. State

793 S.E.2d 91, 300 Ga. 121, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 737
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedNovember 7, 2016
DocketS16A1353
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 793 S.E.2d 91 (Buford v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Buford v. State, 793 S.E.2d 91, 300 Ga. 121, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 737 (Ga. 2016).

Opinion

BENHAM, Justice.

After conducting a bench trial, the trial court found appellant Norman Buford guilty but mentally ill for the shooting death of Willie [122]*122Archer and the aggravated assault of Orantes Dishmond.1 For the reasons set forth below, we vacate the sentencing order in part and otherwise affirm.

1. Appellant’s chief complaint is that the trial court failed to find him not guilty by reason of insanity In Georgia, a defendant is presumed to be sane and, as such, a defendant asserting an insanity defense has the burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he was insane at the time the crime was committed. See Avelo v. State, 290 Ga. 609 (3) (724 SE2d 377) (2012). On appeal,

[t]he applicable standard of review is whether after reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, a rational trier of fact could have found that the defendant failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he was insane at the time of the crime.

(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Fuss v. State, 271 Ga. 319, 320 (1) (519 SE2d 446) (1999).

(a) The evidence viewed in a light most favorable to upholding the verdict shows that on July 1, 2003, Dishmond, who was the boyfriend of appellant’s daughter, drove to appellant’s house along with his friend Archer in order to take appellant’s daughter to work. Dish-mond parked his vehicle and honked his horn. Appellant came out of his house with a shotgun and shot into the vehicle, killing Archer, a man whom appellant had never met. Appellant asserted voices had told him to “do it.” Appellant waived his right to a jury trial and gave notice he was pursuing an insanity defense. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing to determine whether it would accept a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity

[123]*123The hearing transcript shows Dr. Simon Sebastian testified about his forensic evaluation of appellant. It was Dr. Sebastian’s opinion that, at the time of the shooting, appellant was suffering from schizophrenia. Dr. Sebastian testified appellant had auditory hallucinations at various points of his life beginning when he was in middle school and continuing through the time of the incident. Dr. Sebastian stated appellant’s auditory hallucinations would “flare up” during periods of stress and then subside. Sometimes appellant could resist what the voices told him to do and sometimes he acted on what the voices were telling him to do. In the 1990s, appellant sought psychiatric treatment and was prescribed medication which he stopped taking because he did not like to take pills. There was no evidence appellant had been prescribed or took any medication for his mental health at any other time prior to the shooting. Shortly before the incident, appellant had been laid off from his job and was not working. He had also stopped taking his diabetes and hypertension medications, and his family members reported associated mood swings. In June 2003, appellant visited a psychiatrist at the veteran’s hospital,2 but was not diagnosed with any mental disorder and was not prescribed any medicine. Three days before the incident, appellant called a veteran’s hospital helpline to complain of confusion and memory loss, and a nurse admonished him to go to the emergency room, but he did not do so. After appellant was arrested, he was given anti-psychotic medication, and the auditory hallucinations ceased, although he did experience some visual hallucinations.

During the forensic evaluation, appellant told Dr. Sebastian he had been playing with his grandchild when he heard the victim’s car horn, and he then became irritated, heard a voice or voices telling him to “do it,” and ultimately could not resist the voices.3 Appellant said he did not feel he was under threat and said he did not know why he did what he did. Dr. Sebastian believed appellant did not know what he was doing was wrong because the actions occurred in broad daylight and because appellant lived right next door to a facility at which police officers had their vehicles repaired.4 However, Dr. Sebastian also testified as follows:

Did he know right from wrong? It’s very hard to tell and for the fact that there’s a very short span of time that he went [124]*124from playing with his grandchild to this action and then back to being very cooperative and following directions from, you know, the police officers.

Dr. Sebastian believed appellant was delusional, but was equivocal as to whether appellant’s actions were justified given any delusion from which he was suffering:

Q: [WJould, in the defendant’s min[d], his acts have been justified given the delusion he was suffering from?
A: I don’t know if it would have been justified.

In addition to Dr. Sebastian’s live testimony and forensic report, the record included the report of Dr. Deborah D. Gunnin, who examined appellant to determine whether he was competent to stand trial. In her pretrial evaluation, she concluded as follows:

In the opinion of the examiner, at the time of the alleged offenses, the defendant was suffering from symptoms of a mental disorder. However, an opinion cannot be formed by this examiner with a reasonable degree of psychological certainty regarding the mental capacity of the defendant to distinguish right from wrong in relation to the alleged acts, or regarding whether he suffered from a delusional compulsion that overmastered his will to resist committing the alleged act.

In support of her conclusion, Dr. Gunnin noted there was no information clearly indicating whether appellant knew right from wrong or indicating he was suffering from a delusional compulsion that overmastered his will, in particular because appellant said he did not know why he acted the way he did other than stating that voices told him to “Do it. Do it.”

Appellant also testified at the plea hearing and admitted he committed the offenses listed in the indictment. On the day in question, appellant said he was hearing voices, but stated he did not know why he shot the victims and agreed he had no justification for doing so. Appellant confirmed that since taking medication while in jail, he no longer hears the voices.

(b) In Georgia, there are two theories through which a defendant may establish insanity. He may prove that, at the time of the acts alleged, he “did not have [the] mental capacity to distinguish between right and wrong” pursuant to OCGA § 16-3-2 and/or he was suffering from “a delusional compulsion as to such act which overmastered his [125]*125will to resist committing the crime” pursuant to OCGA § 16-3-3. “When a delusional compulsion is the basis of an insanity defense, the delusion must be one that, if it had been true, would have justified the defendant’s actions.” (Footnote omitted.) Boswell v. State, 275 Ga. 689, 690-691 (1) (572 SE2d 565) (2002).

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Bluebook (online)
793 S.E.2d 91, 300 Ga. 121, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buford-v-state-ga-2016.