George Jones v. State

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ June 09, 2015

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A15A1663. GEORGE JONES v. THE STATE.

In 2001, George Jones was convicted of armed robbery. On appeal, we affirmed his conviction in an unpublished opinion but remanded for the trial court to address his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Case No. A02A0634 (decided April 10, 2002). On remand, the trial court rejected the ineffective assistance claim, and Jones again appealed. Once more, we affirmed. Jones v. State, 312 Ga. App. 15 (717 SE2d 526) (2011). In June 2013, Jones filed a motion to modify his sentence, arguing among other things that his sentence of life imprisonment without parole should be vacated because the State did not seek the death penalty. The trial court denied the motion, and Jones appealed. We dismissed the appeal after finding that Jones did not raise a colorable void sentence claim. Case No. A14A0133 (decided October 22, 2013). Jones then filed a second motion to modify his sentence, arguing again that he was improperly sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The trial court denied the motion, specifically finding that this Court had already decided the issue adversely to Jones, and Jones filed this direct appeal. We lack jurisdiction.

This Court previously ruled that the trial court properly sentenced Jones. “It is axiomatic that the same issue cannot be relitigated ad infinitum. The same is true of appeals of the same issue on the same grounds.” Echols v. State, 243 Ga. App. 775, 776 (534 SE2d 464) (2000); see also Jordan v. State, 253 Ga. App. 510, 511 (2) (559 SE2d 528) (2002). Our ruling in the prior appeal is res judicata. See Hook v. Bergen, 286 Ga. App. 258, 261 (1) (649 SE2d 313) (2007). Thus, Jones is estopped from seeking further judicial review on this issues. See id; see also Ross v. State, 310 Ga.

App. 326, 328 (713 SE2d 438) (2011) (law of the case rule bars successive void sentence appeals). Accordingly, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 06/09/2015

Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 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.