Charleston v. State

743 S.E.2d 1, 292 Ga. 678, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 754, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 300
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 25, 2013
DocketS12A1990
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 743 S.E.2d 1 (Charleston 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
Charleston v. State, 743 S.E.2d 1, 292 Ga. 678, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 754, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 300 (Ga. 2013).

Opinion

Nahmias, Justice.

Appellant Maurice Charleston and Scott Walker were indicted for malice murder and other crimes related to the shooting death of Edric Finney. Following a joint trial, a jury found both defendants [679]*679guilty on all counts. We have already affirmed Walker’s convictions. See Walker v. State, 282 Ga. 703 (633 SE2d 468) (2007). Because the issues raised by Appellant lack merit, we now affirm his convictions as well.1

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence presented at trial showed the following. See Walker, 282 Ga. at 703-704. On the evening of April 4, 2003, Edric Finney ran a quick errand for his girlfriend, Pamela Lyman, and then returned to her apartment, which at the time was his primary residence. Just before Finney entered, Lyman heard him at her door exchanging obscenities with another person. She then heard a single gunshot. When she went into the living room, she found her door wide open and Finney lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head.

Two off-duty police officers who were working as security officers at the apartment complex had heard a loud pop like the sound of a firecracker. They approached Lyman’s apartment and saw two young men running from the apartment in different directions. At the apartment, the officers found Lyman crouched against the wall screaming and Finney lying in a pool of blood. Finney died of a single close-range shotgun blast to the head.

Appellant and Walker had stopped by a friend’s apartment shortly before the shooting. They were riding in a gray minivan that belonged to Appellant’s grandmother, and when they left, Appellant told his friend that he was taking Walker home. Shortly thereafter, however, the friend went to visit someone at the nearby apartment complex where the crimes occurred and saw the minivan parked near Lyman’s apartment. The police were already there investigating the [680]*680shooting. According to the friend, Walker had referred to himself and Appellant as “brothers.”

At trial, Lyman testified that she recognized Appellant and Walker because both men had been to her apartment in the days before Finney’s murder. Walker came to her apartment and asked her for a gun, which he claimed was in Finney’s possession but belonged to “his brother,” who would need it when he was released from jail. The next night, which Lyman testified was the night Appellant got out of jail, Appellant came to her apartment driving a grey minivan. He told Lyman that if Finney wanted to keep his gun, Finney should bring some money by his house. On the day of the shooting, Walker came to Lyman’s apartment again to ask her about the gun and Finney’s whereabouts. Finney, who overheard the conversation from inside the apartment, emerged to talk to Walker, spoke with Walker for 15-20 minutes out of Lyman’s earshot, and then returned to the apartment. Lyman also testified that Finney had been hiding a gun under the mattress in her bedroom.

Around the time of the shooting, Cheryl Sewell, a neighbor of Lyman, saw Finney stop to talk to two men, whom she identified at trial as Appellant and Walker, on the sidewalk outside the apartment building. Sewell saw Finney enter Lyman’s apartment, followed shortly thereafter by the two men, who opened the door without knocking. Walker had a weapon. Sewell heard someone say “oh,” followed by a single gunshot and the sound of something falling. Sewell then saw the two men emerge from the apartment, heading in different directions. Before trial, Sewell had identified Walker in one photographic lineup, although she was only able to narrow a second lineup down to three possible suspects, one of whom was Appellant.

Kahiem Maddox, another neighbor, identified Appellant and Walker from photographic lineups as the men he saw outside Lyman’s apartment on the night of the crimes. Maddox, who was incarcerated at the time of trial, testified reluctantly and had to be impeached with his prior statement.

Appellant and Walker were arrested at Appellant’s father’s house a few hours after the shooting. When police officers arrived, Appellant answered the door but would not let them in. His father, however, did let them in, and they found Walker hiding under some mattresses.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence presented at trial and summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find Appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which he was convicted. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307, 319 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). Even if Appellant was not the shooter, his conduct with Walker before, during, and after [681]*681the shooting supports his convictions as a party to the crimes. See OCGA § 16-2-20; Brown v. State, 291 Ga. 887, 888 (734 SE2d 41) (2012). See also Vega v. State, 285 Ga. 32, 33 (673 SE2d 223) (2009) (“ ‘It was for the jury to determine the credibility of the witnesses and to resolve any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence.’ ” (citation omitted)).

2. Appellant contends that the State failed to put Jonathan Finney, the victim’s brother, on its witness list, as required by OCGA § 17-16-3, and that the trial court erred in not granting him a continuance before Jonathan testified. However, Appellant failed to raise this discovery objection or move for a continuance in the trial court, and he is therefore barred from raising the issue on appeal. See Brinson v. State, 288 Ga. 435, 437 (704 SE2d 756) (2011).

To the extent Appellant contends that the State violated his right to due process by failing to disclose to the defense before trial the substance of Jonathan’s statement, see Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (83 SC 1194, 10 LE2d 215) (1963), the claim has no merit.2 Walker raised the same issue in his appeal, and we held that “there was no Brady violation,” explaining that

Jonathan Finney’s suspicions regarding Lyman’s possible involvement were nothing more than uncorroborated speculation that, even if true, would have done little to rebut or mitigate Walker’s guilt. Furthermore, the evidence in question was available to Walker at trial, at which he had the opportunity to pursue the issue through further questioning of Jonathan Finney and could, had he deemed it necessary, have sought a continuance to further investigate this theory.

Walker, 282 Ga. at 706-707 (citations omitted). This holding applies equally to Appellant’s claim.

3. Appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to sever his trial from Walker’s trial, but we reject this claim [682]*682for the same reasons that we held that the court did not abuse its discretion in denying Walker’s motion to sever his trial from Appellant’s:

The case involved a straightforward chain of events occurring over a period of a few days culminating in the shooting of a single victim. The evidence adduced at trial was not complex.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wesley Romine v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2026
Vendrel v. State
897 S.E.2d 751 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2024)
Harris v. State
864 S.E.2d 31 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2021)
Johnson v. State
853 S.E.2d 635 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2021)
Van Alexander Pride v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2020
Williams v. State
305 Ga. 776 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2019)
Roberts v. State
305 Ga. 257 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2019)
Wainwright v. State
Supreme Court of Georgia, 2019
Burrell v. State
799 S.E.2d 181 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2017)
Sullivan v. State
799 S.E.2d 163 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2017)
Kennebrew v. State
792 S.E.2d 695 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2016)
Marshall v. State
774 S.E.2d 675 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2015)
Tepanca v. State
771 S.E.2d 879 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2015)
Phillips v. the State
764 S.E.2d 879 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014)
Glover v. State
764 S.E.2d 826 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2014)
Solomon v. State
748 S.E.2d 865 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
743 S.E.2d 1, 292 Ga. 678, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 754, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/charleston-v-state-ga-2013.