Daryl Baptiste v. State

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ June 01, 2026

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A26A1811. DARYL BAPTISTE v. THE STATE.

In 1994, a grand jury indicted Daryl Baptiste for armed robbery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and theft by taking. Baptiste ultimately pled guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of false imprisonment. See Baptiste v. State, 229 Ga. App. 691, 693 (494 SE2d 530) (1997). The trial court denied Baptiste’s subsequent motion to withdraw his guilty pleas, and, on appeal, we affirmed his convictions. See generally id.1 In 2025, Baptiste filed a motion to vacate his conviction due to lack of jurisdiction and fraud. The trial court dismissed the motion and Baptiste a timely notice of appeal. This Court, however, lacks jurisdiction.

“[A] petition to vacate a judgment of conviction is not an appropriate remedy in a criminal case.” Harper v. State, 286 Ga. 216, 218(1) (686 SE2d 786) (2009). Any appeal from an order denying or dismissing such a motion must be dismissed. See Roberts v. State, 286 Ga. 532, 532 (690 SE2d 150) (2010); Harper, 286 Ga. at 218(2). Moreover, Baptiste’s current appeal is barred because any issues he might raise have been — or could have been — litigated in his prior appeal. See Echols v. State, 243 Ga. App. 775, 776 (534 SE2d 464) (2000) (“It is axiomatic that the same issue cannot be

1 Baptiste has filed more than a dozen appeals and applications regarding the 1994 case in which the trial court entered an order of nolle prosequi, the 1996 case in which he pled guilty, and other related cases. See, e. g., Baptiste v. State, Case No. A06A1179 (dismissed Feb. 17, 2006); Baptiste v. State, Case No. A23A0753 (dismissed June 8, 2023).

relitigated ad infinitum. The same is true of appeals of the same issue on the same grounds.”) (punctuation omitted); Jackson v. State, 273 Ga. 320, 320 (540 SE2d 612) (2001) (a party “is not entitled to another bite at the apple by way of a second appeal”).

Accordingly, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 06/01/2026

I certify that the above is 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.