Griffin v. State

527 S.E.2d 577, 241 Ga. App. 783, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 460, 1999 Ga. App. LEXIS 1696
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided December 30, 1999·No. A99A2460·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

Eldridge, Judge.

A Clayton County jury found Ted Lamar Griffin guilty of aggravated assault, battery, false imprisonment, and impersonating an officer. The charges arose when Griffin, out of anger, shot Raul Molina in the leg, then handcuffed him and beat him in the head with a pistol. Griffin appeals, raising 11 enumerations of error. Because each of Griffin’s enumerated errors lacks merit, we affirm his conviction.

1. Griffin first contends that, between his own testimony alleging self-defense and other evidence offered by the defense, a rational trier of fact could not have believed the testimony of the victim so as to find Griffin guilty of aggravated assault. This contention, however, goes to the issue of credibility and the weight to be given the testimony of the victim. This is an issue within the jury’s exclusive province. Norris v. State, 258 Ga. 889, 890 (1) (376 SE2d 653) (1989). “Our role is limited to evaluating the sufficiency of the evidence, not reweighing it.” Jones v. State, 232 Ga. App. 630 (502 SE2d 557) (1998) . The victim’s testimony supplied the essential elements of the offenses and was corroborated by six other witnesses. Any contradictory evidence was rejected by the jury, as reflected by its verdict. Accordingly, Griffin’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence fails. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979); Browning v. State, 236 Ga. App. 893 (1) (513 SE2d 779) (1999) .

2. Following a Williams 1 hearing, the trial court permitted the State to introduce two similar transactions. In his second enumeration of error, Griffin challenges that ruling and claims the independent acts were not sufficiently similar to the indicted act to warrant admission. The record shows that, in the first independent act, Griffin was angry with James Moore for permitting Moore’s dogs to get loose. Griffin obtained a handgun, went to Moore’s house, and threatened to shoot the occupants with the gun. In the second independent act, Griffin was angry with William Apple for the way in which Apple was managing their mutual business, a barbeque restaurant. Griffin obtained a handgun, went to the restaurant, and *784 threatened to shoot Apple with the gun.

In the case-in-chief, Griffin was angry with Raul Molina for the way in which Molina was treating Jamie Molina, Raul Molina’s ex-wife and Griffin’s girlfriend. Griffin obtained a handgun, went to Jamie Molina’s apartment to wait for Raul Molina to pick up his daughter for visitation, and then shot Raul Molina with the gun. All three incidents occurred in broad daylight with witnesses present. All three incidents occurred without immediate provocation, when the victims were not expecting an attack. All three incidents resulted from Griffin’s anger.

We find that the independent acts were of sufficient similarity to the crimes charged so that the court did not err in admitting evidence of them for the limited purpose of showing a course of conduct by Griffin. Each incident showed Griffin’s temper and his propensity to settle his disputes with a gun. See Willis v. State, 214 Ga. App. 479, 480 (3) (a) (448 SE2d 223) (1994). In addition, “ ‘[s]ince appellant claimed self-defense, evidence of previous unprovoked attacks was relevant to show malice, intent, motive, and bent of mind.’ [Cit.]” Farley v. State, 265 Ga. 622, 624 (458 SE2d 643) (1995).

3. Enumerations of error 5 and 6. Griffin contends that the trial court erred in refusing to admit evidence to rebut the State’s similar transactions. His contentions are meritless for the reasons that follow:

(a) Griffin proffered the testimony of his neighbor, Crable, who allegedly would provide evidence that Griffin’s act of arming himself when dealing with Moore’s dogs was reasonable because the dogs were vicious and placed Griffin in fear. Initially, the trial court let the evidence in as rebuttal to the extent that it showed Griffin’s acts were reasonable. When called to the stand, however, Crable testified about his own perceptions of the dogs’ viciousness and his own fear of the dogs. He could not provide any testimony about Griffin’s fear of the dogs so as to bear upon the reasonableness of Griffin’s actions. The trial court found that Crable’s perception of the dogs was irrelevant and ruled out that testimony. Absent a manifest abuse of discretion, a trial court’s refusal to admit evidence on grounds of lack of relevance will not be disturbed on appeal. Bevil v. State, 220 Ga. App. 1, 2 (4) (467 SE2d 586) (1996). We find no abuse of discretion here.

(b) Griffin contends that the trial court erred by refusing to permit the introduction of certified copies of two court documents which showed a nolle prosequi was ordered as to each similar transaction incident. However, the record shows the trial court permitted the introduction of the nolle prosequi order on one of the similar transactions. As to the second similar transaction, any error in failing to admit the nolle prosequi order was harmless: the victim of the similar transaction incident testified at trial that the charges against *785 Griffin were dropped. “Because the document in question would have given the jury no information not already provided by other evidence concerning the incident, we find no error in the trial court’s exclusion of it from evidence.” James v. State, 270 Ga. 675, 678 (6) (513 SE2d 207) (1999).

4. Enumerations of error 3, 4, 9 and 11. Next, Griffin contends the trial court’s final jury instructions contained several errors which require reversal. We disagree:

(a) Griffin claims the trial court’s limiting instruction as to the use of similar transaction evidence was insufficient pursuant to our decision in Rivers v. State, 236 Ga. App. 709 (513 SE2d 263) (1999). However, the error that caused reversal in Rivers was not duplicated here. The jury was not permitted to use the similar acts to show any “element of the offense charged in this indictment.” (Emphasis omitted.) Id. at 710. Here, the trial court twice limited the jury’s consideration of the similar transaction evidence to the state of mind or course of conduct of the defendant and instructed the jury that “[s]uch evidence, if any, may not be considered by you for any other purpose.” There was no error.

(b) Griffin contends the following charge was error because a defendant’s knowledge of a victim’s violent acts, offered as part of a justification defense, is not a relevant inquiry in a jury’s consideration of such evidence:

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Griffin v. State, 527 S.E.2d 577, 241 Ga. App. 783, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 460, 1999 Ga. App. LEXIS 1696 (Ga. Ct. App. 1999).

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