Davidson v. State

819 S.E.2d 452, 304 Ga. 460
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 24, 2018
DocketS18A0933; S18A0934
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 819 S.E.2d 452 (Davidson 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
Davidson v. State, 819 S.E.2d 452, 304 Ga. 460 (Ga. 2018).

Opinion

Blackwell, Justice.

*454**460Richard Davidson and Michael Denay Grant were tried separately by Fulton County juries, and both were convicted of murder and the unlawful possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the attempted robbery and fatal shooting of Christopher Walker. Davidson and Grant appeal, each asserting that **461the trial court erred when it admitted certain evidence at his trial. We find no harmful error with respect to Davidson. We conclude, however, that the trial court erred when it admitted a statement against Grant that law enforcement officers elicited from him in a custodial interrogation after he unequivocally invoked his constitutional right to remain silent, and the State has failed to show that this error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, we affirm in Davidson's case, and we reverse in Grant's.1

Sufficiency of the Evidence as to both Davidson and Grant

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, evidence presented at both trials shows that Walker and a friend, Alberto Rodriguez, went to a Taco Bell restaurant in Alpharetta early on the evening of March 12, 2013. As they entered the restaurant, they saw two men standing outside. Rodriguez *455noticed that one of these men had dreadlocks and appeared to be staring at Walker's gold chain, and the other man was wearing a striped shirt. Walker and Rodriguez were inside the restaurant for approximately 13 minutes, and when they left, Rodriguez saw the same man with dreadlocks, now seated in a car that was parked in a lot across the street from the Taco Bell and in the company of two other men. Walker and Rodriguez then drove about six miles to Walker's house in Milton, unaware that they were being followed. They parked in Walker's driveway, and as they **462exited their car, they were approached by the man in a striped shirt, who asked them where he could get some marijuana. When they responded that they did not know, the man started to walk away. But he quickly turned and approached them again, commenting that he liked the chain that Walker was wearing. The man in the striped shirt then pulled out a gun and demanded the chain. When Walker refused, Walker and the man struggled, the man held a gun to Walker's head, and eventually, the man shot Walker in the head. The man then fled to a nearby car-the same car that Rodriguez had observed earlier in the lot across the street from the Taco Bell-which sped away from the scene. Later that night, Walker died as a result of the gunshot wound to his head. An autopsy led to the recovery of bullet fragments, which indicated that Walker had been shot with a .40-caliber bullet.

Investigators retrieved a recording from the video surveillance system at the Taco Bell, and they took notice of three men depicted in the recording, who visited the restaurant close in time to Walker and Rodriguez. When investigators showed the recording to Rodriguez, he identified one of these men as the man with dreadlocks whom he had seen staring at Walker's gold chain, and he identified another as the man in the striped shirt who shot Walker. Investigators also showed the recording to one of Walker's neighbors, and the neighbor said that she had seen the man in the striped shirt run through her yard with a handgun around the time of the shooting. Investigators then released the recording to the public and asked for information about the three men depicted in the recording. Danielle Weed responded to this request for information, and she told investigators that she personally knew all three men. She identified the man with dreadlocks as Matthew Goins; she said that the man in the striped shirt was Davidson; and she identified the third man as Grant. At the trials, Weed again identified Goins, Davidson, and Grant in the video recording, and Rodriguez testified that Grant's car was the car that he had observed both at the Taco Bell and in Walker's neighborhood.

At his trial, Davidson disputed that he was present at the scene of the shooting. The prosecution offered evidence (under OCGA § 24-4-404 (b) ) that Davidson had robbed a traveling businessman at gunpoint only a few months before Walker was killed. In addition, the prosecution presented evidence that investigators had searched Davidson's home, where they found .40-caliber ammunition, although a firearms examiner testified that he was unable to determine whether the .40-caliber ammunition was of the same brand as the bullet that killed Walker. The prosecution also presented evidence of a statement made by Goins, in which Goins admitted that he was present at the scene of a killing. Goins, however, said nothing in that statement about Davidson.

**463Grant did not dispute at his joint trial with Goins that he was present at the scene of the shooting, but Grant argued that he was not a party to the attempted robbery or killing. The prosecution presented evidence that, after Grant was arrested, he made a purportedly incriminating statement to investigators. In that statement, Grant attempted to exonerate Goins, saying that Goins "didn't know we was doing none of that; he didn't know we was going to do that; he didn't know we planned on doing nothing; he was just trying to get home."

Only Grant asserts on appeal that the evidence is legally insufficient to sustain his convictions, but it is our customary practice to review the sufficiency of the evidence in all murder cases, and so, we will consider the sufficiency of the evidence as to Davidson as well. We have separately reviewed the records *456of Davidson's and Grant's respective trials. We conclude that the evidence presented against Davidson is legally sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of the crimes of which he was convicted. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (III) (B), 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). And although the case against Grant is considerably weaker, we conclude that the evidence presented at his trial also is legally sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Grant is guilty of the crimes of which he was convicted. See id. See also Cowart v. State, 294 Ga. 333, 343-344 (6), 751 S.E.2d 399

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

Related

Floyd v. State
321 Ga. 717 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2025)
McIver v. State
Supreme Court of Georgia, 2025
Jenkins v. State
894 S.E.2d 566 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2023)
State v. Brianna Leigh Robertson
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2023
Christian Richards v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2023
Tamarat Martin-Argaw v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2023
SILLAH v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
883 S.E.2d 756 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2023)
State v. Burton
878 S.E.2d 515 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2022)
Jones v. State
878 S.E.2d 505 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2022)
Renfro v. State
872 S.E.2d 283 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2022)
Travis Betterson v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2022
Walker v. State
862 S.E.2d 542 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2021)
State v. Hinton
847 S.E.2d 188 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2020)
State v. Pauldo
844 S.E.2d 829 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2020)
Ensslin v. State
841 S.E.2d 676 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2020)
Samoney D. Tanksley v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2019
State v. Orr
305 Ga. 729 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2019)
State v. Spratlin
305 Ga. 585 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2019)
McCord v. State
305 Ga. 318 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2019)
DAVIDSON v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
304 Ga. 460 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
819 S.E.2d 452, 304 Ga. 460, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davidson-v-state-ga-2018.