Duckett v. State

578 S.E.2d 524, 259 Ga. App. 814, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 275
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 24, 2003
DocketA03A0312
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 578 S.E.2d 524 (Duckett 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
Duckett v. State, 578 S.E.2d 524, 259 Ga. App. 814, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 275 (Ga. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

Ellington, Judge.

A Cobb County jury convicted Brian Scott Duckett of armed robbery, OCGA § 16-8-41 (a); and two counts of aggravated assault, OCGA § 16-5-21 (a). Following the denial of his motion for new trial, Duckett appeals, challenging several evidentiary rulings and the sufficiency of the evidence. Finding no error, we affirm.

[815]*815Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,1 the record reveals the following facts. On January 19, 1997, Duckett, Anthony Meginley, and Daniel Lewis, who worked together in a movie theater in Chattanooga, Tennessee, drove to Marietta to commit a robbery. The three men went to a movie theater, purchased tickets, and went in. Lewis lured the concessions manager into an auditorium where the movie had ended. There, Duckett placed a gun to the back of the concessions manager’s head and told him to sit down. The three robbers questioned the concessions manager about the theater’s safe and about how many employees were still in the theater.

While his accomplices held the concessions manager hostage, Lewis went to the theater office and asked the theater manager to help him find a contact lens. After the manager accompanied Lewis to the auditorium, Duckett pointed a gun at her. After questioning the theater manager and the concessions manager about the security system and the safe and obtaining the keys, Duckett and Meginley went to the theater office. They took cash from the safe and bank bags full of cash from the office and took the surveillance video recorder with the security video still inside. Before leaving the theater, the robbers bound and gagged the victims with pantyhose and duct tape.

A few weeks later, Meginley’s former roommate, Martin Hollis, contacted Marietta police and turned over the videotape and some bank bags. Hollis told police that Duckett, Meginley, and another man committed the theater robbery. The police showed the theater manager the videotape, and she identified three men depicted on the videotape as the ones who robbed her. Meginley cooperated with police and gave a statement about the robbery. In a consent search of Meginley’s home, Chattanooga police found the surveillance video recorder and several bank bags. Chattanooga police located Duckett’s car in a repair shop, impounded it, and searched it. They found duct tape, a package of pantyhose, and a box of ammunition in Duckett’s. car. During trial, Lewis changed his plea to guilty and testified against Duckett.

1. Duckett contends the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to suppress evidence seized in a warrantless search of his vehicle. “When reviewing a trial court’s decision on a motion to suppress, we construe the evidence most favorably toward upholding the court’s findings and judgment. Absent an abuse of discretion, the trial court’s order on a motion to suppress will not be disturbed.” (Citations omitted.) Boone v. State, 256 Ga. App. 220, 221 (1) (568 SE2d 91) (2002).

[816]*816Viewed in the light most favorable to the court’s ruling, the evidence shows that Chattanooga police officers attempted to help Marietta officers locate and arrest Duckett for the theater robbery. In this effort, officers learned of a theft of theater concessions products, paper supplies, and other items from Duckett’s employer. While staking out a body shop where Duckett was expected to come to retrieve his car, officers observed movie posters, popcorn bags with the theater logo, and concession soda cups on the back seat of Duckett’s car. Officers impounded the car, performed a routine impoundment .inventory, and discovered evidence linking Duckett to the Marietta armed robbery.

The plain view doctrine permits “a warrantless search and seizure if the agents are lawfully in position to obtain the view, the discovery is inadvertent, and the object viewed is immediately seen to be incriminating.” (Punctuation and footnote omitted.) Zeeman v. State, 249 Ga. App. 625, 628 (2) (549 SE2d 442) (2001). See Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U. S. 321 (107 SC 1149, 94 LE2d 347) (1987). In this case, the police officers had the owner’s permission to be on the auto shop premises, the officers had not sought out Duckett’s car looking for evidence of the Chattanooga theft, and the stolen items were immediately seen to be. incriminating. Accordingly, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the search of Duckett’s car satisfied the requirements of the plain view exception. Galloway v. State, 178 Ga. App. 31, 34-35 (342 SE2d 473) (1986).

2. Duckett contends the trial court abused its discretion in admitting a photograph for which the State failed to lay a proper foundation. “It is well settled that the quantum of evidence required to sufficiently identify photographs as true and accurate representations of what they purport to depict is a matter to be left within the discretion of the trial court.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Lamar v. State, 256 Ga. App. 567, 571 (2) (568 SE2d 837) (2002). In this case, the victim testified that she recognized the person in the photograph and that the picture accurately reflected Duckett’s appearance when she saw him on the date of the robbery, except that he had been more clean shaven when she saw him. We find no abuse of discretion in the admission of the photograph.

3. Duckett contends the trial court abused its discretion in allowing the theater manager’s courtroom identification, which, he argues, had been tainted by the victim’s pretrial viewing of the photograph discussed in Division 2, supra. As the State correctly points out, however, Duckett identified no evidence that the victim viewed the photograph before trial. Because Duckett has shown no pretrial viewing, we do not reach the threshold question of whether the iden[817]*817tification procedure was impermissibly suggestive.2 See Azizi v. State, 270 Ga. 709, 713 (5) (512 SE2d 622) (1999). There was no error,

4. Duckett contends the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion for a mistrial during the testimony of Meginley’s former roommate, Hollis. During the State’s opening statement, Duckett moved to exclude any testimony about a conversation between Hollis and Meginley about a week after the robbery in which Meginley described the robbery and said it was Duckett’s idea. The State offered the evidence as a declaration of a conspirator under OCGA § 24-3-5.3 Duckett contends the hearsay was not admissible because it lacked sufficient indicia of reliability.

Duckett, the defendant, and Meginley, the declarant, were co-conspirators, and Meginley’s statements were made during the concealment phase of the conspiracy. Accordingly, Meginley’s statements were admissible against Duckett under OCGA § 24-3-5 as long as they bore sufficient indicia of reliability. Copeland v. State, 266 Ga. 664, 665 (2) (b) (469 SE2d 672) (1996). There are four factors that are recognized as indicia of reliability:

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578 S.E.2d 524, 259 Ga. App. 814, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duckett-v-state-gactapp-2003.