Davis v. State

225 S.E.2d 241, 236 Ga. 804, 1976 Ga. LEXIS 1038
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedApril 15, 1976
Docket30635
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 225 S.E.2d 241 (Davis 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
Davis v. State, 225 S.E.2d 241, 236 Ga. 804, 1976 Ga. LEXIS 1038 (Ga. 1976).

Opinions

Jordan, Justice.

Curfew Davis was indicted for the murder of Ann Starnes by the Grand Jury of Troup County. He was tried before a jury, found guilty and sentenced to death. He appeals from the judgment and the sentence.

According to the evidence produced on the trial Ann Starnes was last seen alive on July 19,1974, at approximately 1:30 p.m. She worked for Linden Laboratories and on that date she had picked up blood specimens and pap smears from the Women’s Clinic in LaGrange, Georgia. She was a resident of Muscogee County, Georgia, and on July 22, 1974, the Sheriffs Department of that county received a report that she was missing. On July 28, 1974, her 1973 Chevrolet Malibu automobile was found in LaGrange parked on a side street. Curfew Davis was arrested the following day and charged with automobile theft.

After being fully informed of his rights the appellant was questioned and denied seeing the victim or her car or having been in the car. Later when told that he had been seen in the car, he stated that he obtained Miss Starnes’ car from one E. D. Holloway. Investigation revealed that Holloway’s work records showed that he was in Atlanta at the time the appellant claimed to have obtained the automobile from him.

On July 19, 1974, the day Miss Starnes disappeared, Curfew Davis was living in LaGrange with Betty Bailey. Betty Bailey testified that she kept a .22 caliber pistol in her bedroom drawer, but that on July 22 she found the [805]*805pistol in a different drawer and did not know who had moved it. On July 30 police officers searched Miss Bailey’s home with her consent and seized the pistol which was introduced into evidence. The bullet in Miss Starnes’ skull was fired from this .22 caliber pistol.

On July 31 upon further questioning Curfew Davis told the police that he had thrown Miss Starnes’ car keys in a hedgerow. Upon searching the hedgerow at the location specified the officers found the keys to Miss Starnes’ car.

On August 4,1974, Curfew Davis told the police that he first spotted the car on a street in LaGrange and told them that he took certain laboratory supplies from the car and discarded them in a wooded area. The supplies belonged to Linden Laboratories and were valued at $200 to $300. Police found them at the location specified by the appellant. The appellant stated that the keys were in the car when he took it.

(On August 12,1974, the appellant entered a plea of guilty in Troup Superior Court to the offense of motor vehicle theft of the Starnes car. Evidence of this conviction was not introduced into evidence until the sentencing phase of the appellant’s trial.) ,

On August 28,1974, the appellant told police officers he would show them the location of Miss Starnes’ body. Appellant guided two officers to a wooded area where Miss Starnes’ badly decomposed remains consisting primarily of her skull and bones were found. One officer stayed at the scene until a representative of the Georgia Crime Laboratory picked up her body.

Dr. Larry Howard of the Georgia Crime Lab examined the remains and determined that Miss Starnes died of a .22 caliber bullet in her brain. There were also severe fractures of her face and jaw bones. Her clothing had been torn into strips and tied together as if they had been used as bonds to tie her.

A positive identification of Miss Starnes’ remains was effected by identification of her teeth by her dentist, identification of eye glasses found by her body as the same prescription given to her by her opthalmologist, identification of two rings found at the scene by the friend who had given them to her, and identification of the torn [806]*806clothing found with the remains as belonging to Miss Starnes.

On the same day appellant led the police to Miss Starnes’ body, he made a statement contradicting his prior statements. At this time he stated that on July 19, 1974, he was walking the streets of LaGrange when he saw Miss Starnes’ car. He noticed the keys in the ignition and was about to leave when he noticed Miss Starnes tied and gagged in the back seat. She had a wound on the left side of her head. When he got in he saw her move. He got in and drove to Swift Street where he took the laboratory equipment out of the trunk and threw it away. He then drove- to a wooded area where he dumped Miss Starnes’ body. He stated that she was dead at this time. He checked her body when he dumped it in the woods. He cleaned up the blood from Miss Starnes on the back seat. (Police officers found no trace of blood in the. car.)

On August 31, 1975, the appellant made another statement which contradicted his earlier statements. He stated that he was with JoAnn Porter and "Lewis” when he went into a store tohuy some beer; that when he came out of the store, he saw JoAnn and Lewis in the process of hijacking an automobile; that the car was being driven by a young man, whom JoAnn ordered to slide over from the-steering wheel; that JoAnn had a small revolver and when he asked what was- going on, JoAnn ordered him to get in and drive; that they drove to JoAnn’s house and everyone got out and went inside; that "Lewis” told him to take the car and clean it out; that he took the stuff from the car and scattered* it in. a trash pile; that he returned to JoAnn’s house where JoAnn and Lewis., had taken the gagged victim into a bedroom; that "I was still trying to figure what was going on”; that he then heard shots and rushed into- the bedroom and took a baseball bat away from JoAnn after she had struck, the. victim with it; that "Lewis” had taken a pistol away from JoAnn; that after things quieted down they discussed what they would do with the girl; that he helped them dump Miss Starnes’ body in the wooded area, and that he kept her automobile.

The police investigated but were never able to substantiate, the- allegations concerning JoAnn Porter and Lewis.

[807]*807The defense presented no evidence.

1. In his first three enumerations of error the appellant alleges error in excluding potential jurors who stated that they had conscientious objections to capital punishment, and in Enumerations 11, 12, and 13 makes related enumerations concerning supplementing the transcript.

Three issues are involved herein. They are: (a) The sufficiency of the transcript of the voir dire examination on the issue of conscientious objection to capital punishment; (b) The sufficiency of the examination of the jurors who were disqualified because of conscientious objections to capital punishment; and (c) The authority of the trial court under Code Ann. § 6-805 to supplement the trial transcript of the voir dire examination by order.

In Owens v. State, 233 Ga. 869 (214 SE2d 173) (1975) we limited the power of the trial court to supplement the trial transcript pursuant to Code Ann. § 6-805 in the absence of a transcription of the voir dire examination by the reporter. We permitted supplementing the trial transcript in Coker v. State, 234 Ga. 555 (216 SE2d 782) (1975) only to the extent of establishing that no jurors had been excused for conscientious objection to capital punishment after appellant in that case had asserted in his brief that a number of prospective jurors had been excused on this ground.

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245 S.E.2d 269 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1978)
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563 S.W.2d 581 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1978)
Shippy v. State
556 S.W.2d 246 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1977)
Davis v. State
232 S.E.2d 565 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1977)
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230 S.E.2d 287 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1976)
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229 S.E.2d 737 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1976)
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Bluebook (online)
225 S.E.2d 241, 236 Ga. 804, 1976 Ga. LEXIS 1038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-state-ga-1976.