Hernandez v. State

792 S.E.2d 373, 299 Ga. 796, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 645
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedOctober 17, 2016
DocketS16A0936
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 792 S.E.2d 373 (Hernandez 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
Hernandez v. State, 792 S.E.2d 373, 299 Ga. 796, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 645 (Ga. 2016).

Opinion

NAHMIAS, Justice.

Appellant Fernando Hernandez challenges his convictions for malice murder and a firearm offense in connection with the shooting death of Edgar Rodriguez-Gonzalez. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in allowing the jurors to submit questions to be asked to [797]*797the witnesses and in ruling that part of his custodial statement to the police was admissible. He also asserts that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance. We affirm.1

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence at trial showed the following. On the morning of Labor Day 2010, the victim came to the house in Atlanta that Appellant shared with his wife, his son, his younger brother Octavio, and a couple of friends, including Jorge Vargas. The victim was a friend of Vargas, who met him in front of the house and noticed that he was intoxicated and carrying a shotgun. Octavio and Appellant’s son were also outside. The victim asked Vargas to keep the shotgun at the house, but Vargas declined. At some point after that, the victim lost control of the gun and accidentally shot Octavio in the lower leg and foot. Appellant came running out of the house and saw his brother bleeding and the victim holding a shotgun. Appellant wanted to call 911, but the victim, fearing immigration problems if the police came, asked him not to call. Appellant agreed, and he and his wife drove Octavio to the hospital, where Octavio was treated and released. The victim initially agreed to help pay Octavio’s medical bills, but later refused when Appellant asked him to pay.

About two months after Octavio was shot, on Sunday, October 31, 2010, Appellant was at home drinking when Vargas and a friend came to pick him up to go to the store. The three men ran into one of the victim’s roommates, who asked for a ride to his house to pick up his wallet and phone. When they arrived at the victim’s house, a group of men were out front standing around a fire. The victim’s roommate went inside to get his wallet and phone. At some point, Appellant also went inside, went into the victim’s bedroom, and shot the victim three times with a handgun. One of the bullets entered the victim’s chest and went through the major blood vessels coming out of the top of his heart; this wound ultimately killed him. A second bullet entered the victim’s right hip, and the third bullet entered the right side of the victim’s back.

[798]*798The group outside heard the gunshots, and one of the men immediately ran inside. He found Appellant standing in the victim’s room holding the gun and the victim lying on the floor bleeding. The man took the gun from Appellant and pushed him down, then put the gun on top of an entertainment stand and ran out of the house. None of the men outside heard a struggle before the gunshots. None of the victim’s roommates had ever seen him with a gun, and they did not recognize the gun found in his room.

Appellant came out of the house crying, and he told the group outside that he killed the victim. Shortly thereafter, the police arrived and asked who shot the victim; Appellant responded in English, “I did.” Appellant was arrested, and the police entered the house and found the victim lying on the floor of his room with a faint pulse. The police found the gun on top of the entertainment stand; the victim had no weapons on or around him. The room did not show signs of a struggle, and the victim had no injuries other than the gunshot wounds. The victim also had a blood alcohol content of 0.199 at the time of his death and likely would have been slow to react to any situation. Appellant did not have any visible injuries or scratches indicative of a struggle. In an interview at the police station, Appellant said that he felt sad for what he did, but he did what he did. He made no mention of acting in self-defense.

At trial, Appellant testified that he had acted in self-defense after the victim pulled a gun on him. Appellant claimed that he disarmed the victim and shot him while they were wrestling on the floor.

Appellant does not challenge the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting his convictions. Nevertheless, in accordance with this Court’s practice in murder cases, we have reviewed the record and conclude that, when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence presented at trial and summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find Appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which he was convicted. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307, 319 (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). See also Anthony v. State, 298 Ga. 827, 829 (785 SE2d 277) (2016) (“The jury is free to reject any evidence in support of a justification defense and to accept the evidence that the shooting was not done in self-defense.”); Vega v. State, 285 Ga. 32, 33 (673 SE2d 223) (2009) (“ Tt was for the jury to determine the credibility of the witnesses and to resolve any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence.’ ” (citations omitted)).

2. At the beginning of the trial, the court told the jurors that they could submit written questions for the witnesses. After each witness had been examined by the parties, the jurors could submit their questions, if any, to the court. The questions were then shared with [799]*799counsel,- who were given an opportunity to object before the court posed any questions it found proper to the witness. The parties were also allowed to ask follow-up questions to the witness. Using this procedure, the trial court asked more than 70 questions from the jury; the jurors submitted no questions for some witnesses, while the court asked other witnesses more than ten jury questions.

Appellant claims that the trial court erred by soliciting the jury for questions to ask the witnesses and by asking the witnesses so many jury questions. But these objections to the process for and quantity of jury questions were not raised at trial, where Appellant objected only to some specific questions, and thus his claims were not preserved for review on appeal. See Quintanilla v. State, 273 Ga. 20, 21 (537 SE2d 352) (2000); Matchett v. State, 257 Ga. 785, 786 (364 SE2d 565) (1988).

In any event, we see no error. The trial court followed the procedure for juror questions approved by this Court. As we reiterated in Allen v. State, 286 Ga. 392 (687 SE2d 799) (2010), “[w]hile jurors in Georgia courts may not ask questions of witnesses directly, a trial court may receive written questions from the jury and ask those questions which the court finds proper, or allow counsel for either party to ask a testifying witness the questions found to be proper.” Id. at 396-397. See also Matchett, 257 Ga. at 786 (explaining that “[t]he trial court properly instructed the jury as to the appropriate form of asking questions,” which was “to submit any questions they might wish to have answered to the trial court in writing at the conclusion of the witnesses] testimony’).

Moreover, Appellant has not identified in his brief a single jury question asked by the court that was improper, much less harmfully so. See Hoehn v. State, 293 Ga. 127, 129 (744 SE2d 46) (2013) (finding that a juror question improperly asked directly to a witness was harmless error).

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Bluebook (online)
792 S.E.2d 373, 299 Ga. 796, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hernandez-v-state-ga-2016.