Chambers v. Hall, Warden

305 Ga. 363

• Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
• Decided: March 4, 2019
• Docket: S18A1322
• Status: Published

Opinion

305 Ga. 363 FINAL COPY

S18A1322. CHAMBERS v. HALL.

NAHMIAS, Presiding Justice.

We granted Willie Chambers’s application for a certificate of probable

cause to appeal the denial of his petition for habeas corpus, identifying two

questions: (1) whether the habeas court erred in concluding that there was

sufficient evidence of asportation (movement of the victim) under Garza v.

State, 284 Ga. 696 (670 SE2d 73) (2008), to support Chambers’s conviction for

kidnapping Ryan Mantz; and (2) whether the count charging Chambers with

aggravated assault of Mantz with a deadly weapon merged into his conviction

for armed robbery of Mantz. We answer both questions yes and therefore

reverse the habeas court’s judgment in part.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdicts, and as

pertinent to the issues presented here, the evidence presented at Chambers’s trial

showed the following. On September 13, 2002, three armed, masked men entered Mikey’s Pizza in Charlton County at about 10:00 p.m. The restaurant

was closed, and two employees, Anthony Lloyd and Ryan Mantz, were sitting

at a table in the front room near the cash register counting their tips. One of the

masked men told Lloyd to put his head on the table and not look up. Another

assailant pointed a gun at Mantz’s head, grabbed him, pushed him against the

cash register, and told him to open it. Mantz complied, and he was then pushed

back against a nearby table while the assailants took cash and checks from the

register. There were also three female employees in the restaurant, who were

ordered to walk to a wall in the back room and sit down. The three masked men

then fled with cash and checks from the cash register.1

On October 6, 2003, a jury found Chambers guilty of armed robbery of

Mantz, four counts of kidnapping (of the four restaurant employees other than

Lloyd), five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and possession

of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Chambers was sentenced to

serve 20 years in prison for armed robbery; 20 years for each count of

kidnapping, concurrent to each other but consecutive to the armed robbery

1 The Court of Appeals’s opinion details the investigation that led to the identification of Chambers as one of the assailants. See Johnson v. State, 277 Ga. App. 499, 500-502 (627 SE2d 116) (2006).

2 sentence; ten years for each count of aggravated assault, concurrent with all the

other counts; and five years on probation for firearm possession, consecutive to

all the other counts. He filed a motion for new trial, challenging the trial court’s

admission of testimony about his gang membership and the court’s jury

instruction on the defense of alibi; the trial court denied his motion. He then

filed an appeal raising the same issues, and the Court of Appeals affirmed in

2006. See Johnson v. State, 277 Ga. App. 499 (627 SE2d 116) (2006).2

In January 2010, Chambers filed a pro se petition for habeas corpus,

which he amended several times. He argued, among other things, that his

convictions for kidnapping were not supported by sufficient evidence of

asportation under Garza. An evidentiary hearing was held in September 2014.

In January 2017, the habeas court issued an order denying Chambers relief,

specifically holding that the evidence supported all four of his kidnapping

convictions under Garza because the movement of the victims was “more than

2 Chambers was jointly indicted and tried with Geodonald Wright and Sidney Johnson. All three defendants were found guilty as charged. See Johnson, 277 Ga. App. at 499-500. On appeal, Wright’s convictions were affirmed, but Johnson’s were reversed due to insufficient evidence that he was the third participant in the crimes. See id. at 500. Chambers did not raise the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal, and the Court of Appeals’s opinion did not specifically address the sufficiency of the kidnapping evidence.

3 merely incidental to other criminal activity” and the separation of the male and

female employees “presented a significant danger to these victims due to their

isolation from one another.” Chambers filed a timely notice of appeal and a

timely application for a certificate of probable cause, which we granted to

address the two questions set forth above. In his brief on appeal, the warden

concedes that we should grant relief on both issues, and that is what we will do.

2. We first address Chambers’s challenge to his conviction for

kidnapping Mantz (which was Count 2 of the indictment). Garza requires courts

to consider four factors to determine whether the movement of an alleged

kidnapping victim is sufficient to establish the essential element of asportation:

the duration of the movement; whether the movement occurred during the

commission of a separate offense; whether such movement was an inherent part

of that separate offense; and whether the movement itself presented a significant

danger to the victim independent of the danger posed by the separate offense.

See 284 Ga. at 702. It is not necessary that all four factors support a finding of

asportation. See Wilkerson v. Hart, 294 Ga. 605, 608 (755 SE2d 192) (2014).

But a kidnapping conviction must certainly be reversed where, as here, none of

4 the factors supports such a finding. See id.3

Mantz’s movement was minimal in duration and distance — it happened

quickly and was limited to a few feet. It occurred during and was an integral

part of the armed robbery — Mantz was pushed against the cash register so he

could open it and then pushed out of the way so the robbers could access it.

And the movement did not pose any danger to Mantz independent of the danger

already posed by the armed robbery. Accordingly, there was insufficient

evidence to support Chambers’s conviction for kidnapping Mantz, and that

conviction must be set aside. See id.

3. As to the merger of the aggravated assault and armed robbery

counts, this Court has explained that because “there is no element of aggravated

assault with a deadly weapon that is not contained in armed robbery,” that form

of aggravated assault will merge into armed robbery “if the crimes are part of

the same act or transaction.” Bradley v. State, 292 Ga. 607, 610 (740 SE2d 100)

(2013) (citations and punctuation omitted). See also Long v. State, 287 Ga. 886,

3 Although Garza was decided after Chambers’s crimes, Garza’s holding applies retroactively in habeas corpus proceedings. See Chatman v. Brown, 291 Ga. 785, 791 n.1 (733 SE2d 712) (2012). Garza has since been superseded by statute for offenses occurring after July 1, 2009. See Chatman, 291 Ga. at 791 n.1.

5 889 (700 SE2d 399) (2010) (holding that the “deadly weapon” requirement of

aggravated assault under OCGA § 16-5-21 (a) (2) is the equivalent of the

“offensive weapon” requirement of armed robbery under OCGA § 16-8-41 (a)).

Count 1 of Chambers’s indictment charged him with armed robbery by

taking money “from the immediate presence of Ryan Mantz, by use of an

offensive weapon, to-wit: a handgun.” Count 6 charged Chambers with

aggravated assault by making “an assault upon the person of Ryan Mantz with

a deadly weapon, to-wit: a handgun, by threatening him with, and pointing said

handgun at him.” Both of those charges arose from the same conduct —

threatening Mantz at gunpoint to make him open the cash register so the

assailants could take the cash and checks inside. Accordingly, the aggravated

assault count as to Mantz merged into Chambers’s conviction for armed robbery

of Mantz. The trial court failed to recognize that merger and erroneously

entered a conviction and sentence for the aggravated assault, which must be set

aside. Chambers’s remaining convictions are unaffected by our rulings.

Judgment reversed in part. All the Justices concur.

6 Decided March 4, 2019.

Habeas corpus. Telfair Superior Court. Before Judge Mullis.

Sarah L. Gerwig-Moore, Leslie L. Cadle, Ivy N. Cadle, Mathew Gilbo, J.

Scott Key, for appellant.

Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton,

Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General,

Matthew M. Youn, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.