Cromer v. State

320 S.E.2d 751, 253 Ga. 352, 1984 Ga. LEXIS 950
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedOctober 1, 1984
Docket40841
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 320 S.E.2d 751 (Cromer 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
Cromer v. State, 320 S.E.2d 751, 253 Ga. 352, 1984 Ga. LEXIS 950 (Ga. 1984).

Opinions

Bell, Justice.

The appellant, Robert Cromer, was convicted of the murder of Harold McKinnon and received a life sentence. His motion for new trial was denied, and he now appeals. We affirm.

Testimony established that Harold McKinnon went home about 4:00 a.m. on the morning of June 20. Paul Hawke, who had been with [353]*353Harold that evening, testified that he stopped by Harold’s home about 6:00 a.m., and that, although Harold’s car was there, no one answered the door. Kim McKinnon, the victim’s daughter, testified that at about 11:30 a.m. on June 20 she stopped by her father’s home and found him lying in his bed, with a gunshot wound to the head. Dr. Larry Howard of the State Crime Lab testified that Harold died from a single gunshot wound to the head, and that the muzzle to target distance was 12 to 18 inches. A bullet was recovered from the pillow under Harold’s head.

Cromer and Kim McKinnon lived together in a trailer near Oglethorpe, Georgia. As of the date of the murder they were planning to marry, and have now become engaged. On Saturday night, June 19, 1982, they went to Jimmy Mac’s Lounge in Americus, Georgia, where they saw Mary Green. Green testified that she and Kim discussed the problems of Kim’s father’s disapproval of her relationship with Cromer and of his plan to take her out of his will because of that relationship. She said that Cromer was listening to the conversation, and interjected that “he didn’t want nothing the son-of-a-bitch had anyway.” Although Cromer confirmed that he and Kim saw Mary Green at Jimmy Mac’s Lounge, and admitted that he told Kim and Mary Green that he did not need anything Harold had, he denied having called Harold McKinnon a son-of-a-bitch. Kim testified that she and Cromer stayed at Jimmy Mac’s until approximately 11:30 p.m., at which time they went home and went to bed. She said that Cromer did not leave home that night. Cromer testified to the same sequence of events as Kim, but added that after he and Kim arrived home from Jimmy Mac’s, he stayed there until about 11:30 a.m. on June 20.

William Marvin Lund, Cromer’s brother-in-law, was granted immunity by the state in exchange for his testimony. He testified that approximately one and one-half weeks before the shooting, Cromer told him that he could make some easy money by getting rid of somebody. He said that Cromer did not specify who the person was, and that the conversation went no further. According to Lund, however, the Wednesday following that initial discussion Cromer told him he could make easy money by killing Harold McKinnon. Lund testified that Cromer said he wanted Harold dead because Kim would recover a large sum of insurance money. Lund agreed to help, and Cromer picked him up about 2:00 a.m. on June 20. He testified that Cromer had a pistol, and requested that Lund kill McKinnon. According to Lund, however, he told Cromer that he could not kill Harold, and Cromer then stopped the car and said that “he had to get the job done because he heard that Harold . . . was going to knock Kim out of his will.” Lund switched to driver and Cromer to passenger, and they proceeded to Harold’s house, where Lund let Cromer, armed with a pistol, out of the car. Lund testified that he then drove to a [354]*354nearby church, where he waited for Cromer about an hour, before leaving and driving by McKinnon’s house. Not seeing Cromer or any activity at the house, he returned to the church. Shortly thereafter he saw Harold McKinnon’s black Lincoln Continental drive by, headed toward McKinnon’s house. Lund testified that about a half hour later Cromer came running to the car, jumped in, and said, “Let’s go, the job’s done.” They then drove to Lund’s residence, where Cromer gave Lund the gun, saying that if Lund got rid of it and did not talk, Cromer would give him $5,000. Lund testified that he took the gun with him to his mother’s home in Burnsville, Minnesota, where he cleaned it and hid it in a heating duct in her garage.

William Lund’s sister, Jackie Lund, who lives in Minnesota near her mother, testified that in July 1982 William came to their mother’s home. She testified that she saw William cleaning a .38 caliber pistol, and that when she asked him about it, he told her that it “was his ace in the hole” and that he was to receive $4,000 from Cromer for hiding it because it was used in a murder. She testified that William told her that Cromer was to receive $20,000, and that Cromer had masterminded the plan and he had been the lookout.

Lund was arrested when he returned to Georgia. According to Sheriff Charles Cannon of the Macon County Sheriff’s Department, Lund initially denied any knowledge of the murder, and a search of his car did not reveal a .38 caliber pistol. However, on August 9, 1982, Lund, although denying any personal involvement in the murder, admitted that he knew of the murder; that Cromer gave him a .38 caliber revolver on the morning of June 20, 1982 and asked him to dispose of it; and that he left that revolver at his mother’s home in Minnesota. The revolver was recovered from Minnesota, and a state crime lab analyst testified that the bullet found in the victim’s pillow could have been fired from that revolver.

Carla Lund, the appellant’s sister and William Lund’s wife, testified that the appellant told her he had killed McKinnon.

1. Although Cromer does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence, we find that, viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

2. a. In his first enumeration of error Cromer raises two related issues. He first argues that the trial court erred in denying his request for state funds to hire an investigator to interview two prospective witnesses in Minnesota and to fly those same two witnesses to Georgia to testify. At a pre-trial hearing Cromer argued to the court that his motion should be granted because the two witnesses, Delores Batzlaff, Cromer’s mother, and John Soulier, Cromer’s brother-in-law, had information helpful to the defense. Specifically, he alleged that [355]*355William Lund had made statements to the two witnesses incriminating himself as the murderer of Harold McKinnon, and that those two witnesses might also offer testimony which would impeach certain aspects of the testimony of William Lund.

We find no error. The grant or denial of Cromer’s motion for funds lay within the sound discretion of the trial court, and unless the trial court abused its discretion in denying that motion, we will not disturb its decision on appeal. Tucker v. State, 249 Ga. 323 (3) (290 SE2d 97) (1982); Ennis v. State, 249 Ga. 222 (2) (290 SE2d 50) (1982); Cunningham v. State, 248 Ga. 558 (4) (284 SE2d 390) (1981). Here, the defense alleged Batzlaff and Soulier could provide material information. When asked by the trial court to substantiate those allegations, defense counsel responded that he could not do so without the witnesses present. In an effort to assist the defense, the trial court ordered that a telephone conference be set up between defense counsel and Batzlaff, and stated that if the conference uncovered any information favorable to the defendant, it would consider having her flown to Georgia to testify. It appears, however, that the defense neither availed itself of that opportunity nor took the further step of seeking a conference with John Soulier as well as Batzlaff.

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Cromer v. State
320 S.E.2d 751 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
320 S.E.2d 751, 253 Ga. 352, 1984 Ga. LEXIS 950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cromer-v-state-ga-1984.