Heidler v. State

537 S.E.2d 44, 273 Ga. 54, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 3794, 2000 Ga. LEXIS 693
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedOctober 2, 2000
DocketS00P0808
StatusPublished
Cited by76 cases

This text of 537 S.E.2d 44 (Heidler v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heidler v. State, 537 S.E.2d 44, 273 Ga. 54, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 3794, 2000 Ga. LEXIS 693 (Ga. 2000).

Opinions

Carley, Justice.

A jury convicted Jerry Scott Heidler of the following offenses: four counts of malice murder; kidnapping with bodily injury; two counts of kidnapping; aggravated sodomy; aggravated child molestation; child molestation; and, burglary. For the murders, the jury recommended four death sentences, finding as the statutory aggravating circumstances that each homicide was perpetrated during Heidler’s commission of the other three and that all four deaths occurred during his commission of a burglary. OCGA § 17-10-30 (b) (2). The trial court denied Heidler’s motion for new trial, and he appeals.1

Pre-Trial Issues

1. Heidler claims that his confession resulted from an illegal arrest, but he waived the right to assert that issue on appeal by failing to raise it in the trial court. Rushing v. State, 271 Ga. 102, 104 (2) (515 SE2d 607) (1999); Hardeman v. State, 252 Ga. 286, 288 (2) (313 SE2d 95) (1984). The only objection made below related to the voluntariness of Heidler’s statement, and that is the only question which this Court will now consider.

The trial court was authorized to find the following: Heidler was arrested at approximately 2:00 p.m. on the day the crimes were committed, and his interrogation began about 90 minutes later. The police read Heidler his rights and reviewed the waiver-of-rights form with him before he signed it. The interview lasted about two hours and culminated in a videotaped confession. Heidler was lucid, not [55]*55intoxicated, and he appeared to understand his rights. He was twenty years old and had a tenth grade education. He was not handcuffed, and was provided with cigarettes and a soft drink. He was neither coerced, threatened, nor promised anything in exchange for his statement. He did not request a lawyer or ask that the questioning cease. When asked about the sequence of events and why they occurred, Heidler said several times that he was unsure because it was like “a dream.” One of the interrogating officers volunteered to “get in the dream with him,” and Heidler claims that this was coercive. However, a review of the record shows that the offer was simply an attempt on the part of the officer to prod Heidler’s memory. Viewing the totality of the circumstances, we conclude that the trial court properly denied Heidler’s motion to suppress his statement on the ground that it was involuntary. See Lee v. State, 270 Ga. 798, 800 (2) (514 SE2d 1) (1999); OCGA § 24-3-50.

2. Heidler claims a violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (83 SC 1194, 10 LE2d 215) (1963) based upon the purported failure of the State to turn over his Department of Family & Children Services (DFCS) records that were in its possession. However, the trial transcript shows'that the prosecution made the DFCS records that it possessed available to the defense before trial, and that Heidler, in turn, furnished many of the records to mental health experts to assist in their pre-trial evaluations of him and that he also introduced a significant number of those records into evidence at trial. See Pace v. State, 271 Ga. 829, 836 (17) (524 SE2d 490) (1999); Dennard v. State, 263 Ga. 453, 454 (4) (435 SE2d 26) (1993) (no Brady violation when the alleged exculpatory evidence is available to the accused at trial); Davis v. State, 261 Ga. 382, 385 (8) (b) (405 SE2d 648) (1991) (no Brady violation when the alleged exculpatory evidence is presented to the jury at trial).

In addition, Heidler could, and did, obtain the records directly from DFCS by means of his own separate subpoena. See Mize v. State, 269 Ga. 646, 648 (2) (501 SE2d 219) (1998) (in order to prevail on Brady claim, defendant must show he could not obtain the exculpatory evidence on his own with any reasonable diligence). We find no violation by the State of Heidler’s discovery rights.

Jury Selection

3. The death penalty qualification of prospective jurors during the guilt-innocence phase of a capital case is not unconstitutional. DeYoung v. State, 268 Ga. 780, 790 (11) (493 SE2d 157) (1997). Heidler farther contends that the trial court erroneously found to be qualified several prospective jurors who expressed a bias in favor of the death penalty, and compounded that error by striking for cause sev[56]*56eral others who were not prejudiced against the imposition of that sentence.

The proper standard for determining the disqualification of a prospective juror based upon his views on capital punishment “is whether the juror’s views would ‘prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.’ ”

Greene v. State, 268 Ga. 47, 48 (485 SE2d 741) (1997), quoting Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U. S. 412, 424 (II) (105 SC 844, 83 LE2d 841) (1985). We must base our review of the trial court’s rulings in this regard upon a consideration of the voir dire as a whole. Crowe v. State, 265 Ga. 582, 588 (9) (a) (458 SE2d 799) (1995). There is no requirement that a prospective juror’s qualification or disqualification appear with unmistakable clarity, since the trial court often has to resolve equivocations or conflicts in the responses on voir dire. Ledford v. State, 264 Ga. 60, 64 (6) (439 SE2d 917) (1994); Jefferson v. State, 256 Ga. 821, 823 (2) (353 SE2d 468) (1987). For this reason, this Court must pay deference to the trial court’s determination of a prospective juror’s qualification, and affirm the ruling below, absent some manifest abuse of discretion. Ledford, supra.

(a) Prospective Juror Howard. According to Heidler, Mr. Howard was not qualified because he would not consider voting for life with the possibility of parole. The voir dire transcript shows, however, that Mr. Howard initially stated that he would consider all three sentencing options and any mitigating evidence. He was adamant that the death penalty is not appropriate for all murderers. Later, he did say that he could not vote for life with the possibility of parole for someone convicted of murder “without hearing all the evidence” and that he had negative feelings about parole “in some cases.” However, he then agreed that he could vote for life with parole “if it was prove [n] to me that it was . . . worthy.” Although he later seemed to equivocate somewhat, Mr. Howard complained that defense counsel had “confused me quite a bit” regarding the life with parole questions. The trial court itself then questioned Mr. Howard, and he replied that he never meant to say that he would not consider any sentencing option. Mr. Howard agreed that he would consider all of them, but that he would “have to hear the evidence first.” Despite Mr. Howard’s apparent confusion and seeming equivocation, his answers as a whole support the trial court’s finding that he could consider all three sentencing options in accordance with his instructions and his oath. See Bishop v. State, 268 Ga. 286, 289 (6) (486 SE2d 887) (1997). Thus, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by qualifying Mr. Howard to serve on the jury.

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Bluebook (online)
537 S.E.2d 44, 273 Ga. 54, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 3794, 2000 Ga. LEXIS 693, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heidler-v-state-ga-2000.