Dominique Styles v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 24, 2014
DocketA14A1230
StatusPublished

This text of Dominique Styles v. State (Dominique Styles v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dominique Styles v. State, (Ga. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

FIRST DIVISION PHIPPS, C. J., ELLINGTON, P. J., and MCMILLIAN, J.

NOTICE: Motions for reconsideration must be physically received in our clerk’s office within ten days of the date of decision to be deemed timely filed. http://www.gaappeals.us/rules/

September 24, 2014

In the Court of Appeals of Georgia A14A1230. STYLES v. THE STATE.

PHIPPS, Chief Judge.

In connection with a home invasion during which property was taken at

gunpoint from four persons, Dominique Styles was tried by a jury, then convicted of

burglary and four counts of armed robbery. In this appeal, he challenges the

sufficiency of the evidence, claims he was entitled to a jury charge on robbery by

intimidation as a lesser included offense of armed robbery, and contests the denial of

his motion for new trial which asserted that his trial counsel had rendered ineffective

assistance. We affirm.

1. Styles contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion for a directed

verdict of acquittal and that his convictions are not supported by sufficient evidence. Pursuant to Jackson v. Virginia,1 “the relevant question is whether, after viewing the

evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could

have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”2

In its case in chief, the state showed the following. The crimes occurred at the

residence of two women and one of the women’s children. Their home had frequently

been the site of card games. Styles had once participated in a game there. He returned

on July 25, 2009, at about 10:00 p.m. The residents were at home, and their family

members were visiting; collectively, the occupants numbered about twelve.

When Styles knocked on the front door and announced his name, a brother of

one of the residents recognized him, opened the door, and allowed Styles to enter.

Styles stepped into the living room and asked the group sitting there whether they

were playing cards that night; they answered no. Styles went back to the front door,

peered outside, then walked back into the living room. About ten seconds later, a man

1 443 U. S. 307 (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). 2 Id. at 319 (III) (B) (emphasis in original); see Shelton v. State, 279 Ga. 161, 162 (3) (611 SE2d 11) (2005) (explaining that the standard of review enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia, supra, applies whether reviewing the denial of a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal or whether determining the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction).

2 wearing a mask rushed into the residence through that same door, which had been left

ajar.

The masked man pointed a gun at each adult resident and family member,

ordering to the effect: “Give me everything, cell phone, money and all.” The man

took money from two of them. He took a cell phone from a third. From a fourth, the

man took car keys, ordering her: “Take me out to the car, where the money at.” The

man then forced that woman to her car, which he searched; finding no money, the

man took a bank envelope.

Meanwhile, one of the family members, who had escaped while the gunman

was still inside, ran to a neighbor’s residence and summoned police. While the

gunman was outside searching the car, another family member inside the residence

dialed police; and a third family member sneaked out a window and ran to a nearby

apartment, where he asked residents to contact the police. Styles had initially begun

“running behind” that family member; however, as another family member testified,

“[Styles] could have kept going and got help, but he came back inside the house

where the gunman was,” then went into a bedroom and began “plundering trying to

steal [a] PlayStation.”

3 During the intervals when Styles and the gunman were both at the residence,

the gunman never pointed his weapon at Styles and never ordered Styles to relinquish

any property. And by the time the police arrived, neither Styles nor the gunman was

still on the premises.

The gunman was later identified as Lamar Jones. Co-indicted on all counts with

Styles, Jones entered a negotiated guilty plea, pursuant to which he agreed to testify

for the state at Styles’s trial. In his trial testimony, Jones provided details about the

planning and execution of the heist. Earlier on the day in question, Styles had called

him and told him about a “lick”3 at a residence, which Styles described as a

“gambling house.” Jones recounted that Styles had designed a plan: “[Styles was]

going to go knock on the door. As he knock on the door and get the door open, I just

come behind him, and he just play like, you know. . . like I just came by myself.”

Jones testified that, after driving to the targeted residence, “We got out, . . . crept

along side of the house. We went on around, he knocked on the door. Once he

knocked I could hear him talking with somebody[,] . . . then they kind of exchanged

a little bit more words.” Jones recalled, “I came around, and I went in the house.”

Jones testified that he was wearing a mask, that he brandished a gun, and that he took

3 Jones explained at trial that “lick” was street slang for robbery.

4 money from two or three of the occupants. He testified that he also “escorted” one of

the residents to her car, which he searched for money; he took a bank envelope, which

he later discovered contained only receipts. And when he saw police approaching the

area, he ran away.

On cross-examination of several of the state’s witnesses, Styles’s lawyer

elicited testimony that during the incident, Styles had not held a gun, had not

threatened anyone, and had not made any demand upon anyone.

Styles was the sole defense witness. He admitted that, prior to the night of the

incident, he had been to the residence, where he had played cards and seen “[a] pretty

good amount of money” change hands. He testified that when he knocked on the front

door on the night in question, he was invited to come inside, and that after stepping

inside, Jones came into the residence, waving a gun and demanding money.

Styles conceded that, after his initial entry into the living room, “[t]he door was

never closed.” Styles, who was 21 years old at the time of the incident, testified that

he had known Jones since they were children. Styles admitted that Jones never

pointed the gun at him nor demanded from him any money. Styles denied, however,

planning with Jones the commission of any offense and testified further that, while

5 Jones was perpetrating the crimes, he and a resident’s family member sprinted to a

nearby apartment and asked someone there to contact police.

In rebuttal, the state called as a witness that family member, who recounted that

after he sneaked out the window, he saw Styles already outside. Although Styles had

initially begun running with him, Styles “split off”and “went some else where” –

Styles was not with him when he reached the apartment nearby and asked the

residents to contact police.

The indictment charged Styles and Jones with the same 25 offenses. The jury

found Styles guilty of burglary of the residence, guilty of the armed robberies of four

persons, and not guilty of the remaining charges (including 12 counts of possession

of a firearm during the commission of a felony). As explained more fully below,

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Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
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582 S.E.2d 164 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2003)
McIlwain v. State
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Clark v. State
611 S.E.2d 38 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2005)
Shelton v. State
611 S.E.2d 11 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2005)
Dennis v. State
430 S.E.2d 742 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1993)
Edwards v. State
442 S.E.2d 444 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1994)
Manzano v. State
651 S.E.2d 661 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2007)
Hopkins v. State
489 S.E.2d 368 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1997)
Davis v. State
653 S.E.2d 104 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2007)
Bell v. State
697 S.E.2d 793 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2010)
Walker v. State
702 S.E.2d 415 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2010)
Colzie v. State
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Dominique Styles v. State, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dominique-styles-v-state-gactapp-2014.