Harris v. State

818 S.E.2d 530, 304 Ga. 276
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided August 20, 2018·No. S18A0826·Published·Cited by 17 cases

Opinion

HUNSTEIN, Justice.

**276Appellant Joseph Irvine Harris was tried and convicted of murder and related offenses in connection with crimes he committed **277against David Rucker, Ashley Gay, and their two minor children.1 Harris appeals, alleging *533three instances of trial court error. Though we find no reversible trial court error, we reverse Harris' convictions and sentences for false imprisonment because of insufficient evidence.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, the evidence presented at trial established that, on the evening of June 14, 2012, Harris and his co-defendant, Denirio Cunningham, asked their acquaintance, Keith Alexander, for a ride to Brooks Crossing Apartments in Clayton County so that Harris could retrieve some clothing. Alexander agreed and Harris provided directions so that Alexander could drive the men to the apartment complex.

Around 9:00 p.m., Ashley Gay and David Rucker had just put their children to bed when they heard banging on the balcony door of their second floor apartment. Soon thereafter, they heard the sound of someone climbing through their closed window blinds. Rucker and Gay barricaded themselves and their two screaming, scared children (D.R., a minor girl, and D.R., a minor boy) in the back bedroom of the apartment. Harris and Cunningham kicked in one bedroom door before proceeding to the back bedroom where the family was hiding. After the men succeeded in kicking down that door, Rucker pushed the men out of the room and down the hallway, shouting, "No bro, no bro, my kids in here." Gay heard a gunshot, then the apartment fell silent. When Gay looked around the corner, she saw Rucker lying on the floor.

**278Harris and Cunningham hurried back to Alexander's car. They jumped inside and told him to "pull off, pull off." Alexander drove away, asking the men numerous times what had happened, but neither man would answer. Finally, when Alexander pulled into the driveway of a friend's house, Harris, who looked upset, responded, "Man, stuff got real crazy in there." Alexander continued to push for information; Cunningham explained that he and Harris were "trying to hit a lick" and admitted to shooting "Ruck."

Officers arrived at the scene and found Rucker unresponsive. The medical examiner determined that Rucker died from a single gunshot wound to the chest and found signs of blunt force trauma to Rucker's face and forehead. During their investigation, officers located a chair positioned on top of the air conditioning unit just below the victims' second floor balcony and found a window screen lying on the victims' balcony. Gay told officers that the two intruders had on black masks and black gloves, and, though she did not see their faces, she believed "Joe," one of Rucker's longtime friends, might have been responsible. Law enforcement dusted the apartment's balcony door for prints and located a fingerprint that matched Harris' left index finger.

A few days later, Alexander informed law enforcement that Harris and Cunningham were involved in the victim's murder. The two men were subsequently arrested and held at the Clayton County Jail. While there, both men made numerous incriminating statements to other individuals regarding their participation in the crimes. Cunningham also attempted to have Alexander killed in order to prevent him from testifying. Finally, the State introduced evidence at trial via Rule 404 (b) of a prior robbery allegedly committed by both defendants.

1. Although Harris does not argue that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions, per our general practice in murder cases, we will review the sufficiency of the evidence in this case. When evaluating the sufficiency of evidence, the proper standard for review is whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). "This Court does not reweigh evidence or resolve conflicts in testimony; instead, evidence is reviewed in a light *534most favorable to the verdict, with deference to the jury's assessment of the weight and credibility of the evidence." Hayes v. State, 292 Ga. 506, 506, 739 S.E.2d 313 (2013). Moreover, a "reviewing court must consider all of the evidence admitted by the trial court, regardless whether that evidence was admitted erroneously." (Punctuation and citations omitted.) Kemp v. State, 303 Ga. 385, 388, 810 S.E.2d 515 (2018). **279Viewed in this manner, the evidence was sufficient to sustain Harris' convictions and sentences for malice murder, burglary, aggravated assault (Gay), cruelty to children, and criminal trespass. However, we find that the evidence was insufficient to support Harris' convictions and sentences for false imprisonment. "A person commits the offense of false imprisonment when, in violation of the personal liberty of another, he arrests, confines, or detains such person without legal authority." OCGA § 16-5-41 (a). Here, there is no evidence that Harris arrested, confined, or detained any of the victims. Indeed, the victims chose to barricade themselves and their children in their back bedroom and tried to stop Harris and his co-defendant from entering. Consequently, the evidence was insufficient to establish Harris' guilt beyond a reasonable doubt regarding the three counts of false imprisonment, and his convictions and sentences for the same must be reversed.

2. Turning to Harris' enumerations of error, he first contends that the trial court erred by failing to grant a mistrial or a continuance after the State played a recorded jail phone call between Harris and another witness which, Harris alleges, had not been provided during the course of discovery.

The record shows that, at trial, Harris moved that the jail recording be excluded from evidence due to the alleged discovery violation.

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Harris v. State, 818 S.E.2d 530, 304 Ga. 276 (Ga. 2018).

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