Kinlaw v. State

317 Ga. 414
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedOctober 11, 2023
DocketS23A0547
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 317 Ga. 414 (Kinlaw 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
Kinlaw v. State, 317 Ga. 414 (Ga. 2023).

Opinion

317 Ga. 414 FINAL COPY

S23A0547. KINLAW v. THE STATE.

BETHEL, Justice.

A Glynn County jury found Harold Dean Kinlaw guilty of the

malice murder of Felipe Herrera, the aggravated stalking and

kidnapping of Kinlaw’s former wife Damaris Kinlaw, and other

related crimes.1 Kinlaw appeals, arguing that the evidence was

1 The crimes occurred on January 18, 2004. On May 19, 2004, a Glynn

County grand jury indicted Kinlaw and Jamie Teresa Morris for malice murder of Herrera (Count 1), felony murder of Herrera (Count 2), and kidnapping of Damaris (Count 3). Kinlaw was separately indicted for the aggravated assault of Damaris (Count 4), aggravated stalking (Count 5), possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime (Counts 6 and 7), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (Count 8). The State subsequently filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty against Kinlaw. Morris pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and testified against Kinlaw at trial. At the guilt-innocence phase of Kinlaw’s trial, which was conducted from November 7 to November 18, 2008, the jury found Kinlaw guilty of Counts 1 and 3 through 8. The sentencing phase was conducted from November 18 to November 22, 2008; the jury found the existence of two statutory aggravating circumstances and fixed a sentence of life without parole for malice murder. The trial court sentenced Kinlaw to serve life in prison without parole on Count 1, twenty years in prison each on Counts 3 and 4, ten years in prison on Count 5, five years in prison each on Counts 6 and 7, and five years in prison on Count 8, with Counts 3 through 8 to be served consecutively to Count 1 and to each other. Count 2 was nolle prossed. On December 10, 2008, Kinlaw’s trial counsel timely filed a boilerplate insufficient to support his conviction for aggravated stalking and

that the trial court erred by refusing to provide an interpreter for a

witness at trial, by excluding evidence that Herrera had threatened

Kinlaw, by failing to charge the jury on voluntary manslaughter and

self-defense, and by employing an improper remedy after finding

that the State had violated Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (106

SCt 1712, 90 LE2d 69) (1986). For the reasons explained below, we

affirm.

motion for new trial. On December 11, 2008, Kinlaw filed a pro se motion for appointment of appellate counsel. New attorneys filed entries of appearance in November 2009 and May 2014, but it does not appear from the record that those attorneys took any action on Kinlaw’s appeal. In November 2019, current appellate counsel, the third post-trial counsel to enter an appearance in this case, was appointed by the Georgia Public Defender Council to represent Kinlaw. Current appellate counsel filed amended motions for new trial on October 23, 2020, and February 17, 2021. Following a hearing, the trial court denied Kinlaw’s motion for new trial, as amended. Kinlaw filed a timely notice of appeal, and his appeal was docketed in this Court to the April 2023 term and submitted for a decision on the briefs. We are troubled by the inordinate and unexplained delay between the filing of Kinlaw’s motion for new trial in December 2008 and the filing of an amended motion for new trial nearly 12 years later. So, yet again, we remind the bench and bar that long post-conviction delays “put at risk the rights of defendants and crime victims and the validity of convictions obtained after a full trial,” and we “reiterate that it is the duty of all those involved in the criminal justice system . . . to ensure that the appropriate post-conviction motions are filed, litigated, and decided without unnecessary delay.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Owens v. State, 303 Ga. 254, 258 (4) (811 SE2d 420) (2018). 2 1. The evidence at trial showed as follows. On January 18,

2004, Kinlaw shot and killed Herrera, who was engaged in a

romantic relationship with Damaris. Kinlaw and Damaris were

divorced in December 2003; the final judgment and decree of divorce

incorporated a permanent restraining order, which prohibited

Kinlaw from contacting Damaris.2 On the morning of the crimes, co-

indictee Jamie Morris, who was Kinlaw’s girlfriend, dropped off

Kinlaw near Damaris’s home. Armed with a handgun, Kinlaw hid

in Damaris’s carport underneath a cloth-covered picnic table.

Herrera arrived later, and he and Damaris sat in the carport

drinking coffee, unaware that Kinlaw was hiding nearby.

Eventually, a gust of wind disturbed the tablecloth and

revealed Kinlaw, who emerged from beneath the table with his gun

pointed at Damaris and Herrera. Damaris jumped in front of

Herrera, screaming, “Please don’t, Harold, please don’t.” Herrera

moved toward Kinlaw, reaching for the arm with which Kinlaw was

2 The final judgment converted a previously entered temporary restraining order to a permanent restraining order and indicated that Kinlaw was “bound by that [o]rder on penalty of felony aggravated stalking.” 3 holding the gun. Kinlaw fired the gun three times, striking and

killing Herrera. Kinlaw then forced Damaris into her truck, drove to

a nearby parking lot where Morris was waiting, and transferred

Damaris to Morris’s vehicle. Morris drove the trio to a hotel in North

Carolina where Kinlaw was arrested two days later.

2. Kinlaw challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting

his conviction for aggravated stalking, which was predicated on his

violation of the permanent restraining order incorporated into the

divorce decree. When we evaluate the sufficiency of the evidence to

sustain a conviction,

we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, draw every reasonable inference from the evidence that is favorable to the verdict, ignore any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence, [and] assume that the jury reasonably believed every word of testimony favorable to the verdict and reasonably disbelieved every word unfavorable to it.

(Citation and punctuation omitted.) State v. Thomas, 311 Ga. 407,

420 (4) (858 SE2d 52) (2021).

Kinlaw first asserts that, because the judge presiding over his

divorce action orally indicated prior to the entry of the final divorce

4 decree that he would dismiss the case,3 the underlying protective

order was void and could not support the aggravated stalking

conviction. But the divorce action, in fact, was not dismissed because

the judge’s “oral pronouncement” was not reduced to writing and, so,

was of no legal effect. See Williams v. Williams, 295 Ga. 113, 114 (1)

(757 SE2d 859) (2014) (“[A]n oral pronouncement by a trial court

during a hearing is not a judgment until it is reduced to writing and

entered as a judgment.”); Tyree v. Jackson, 226 Ga. 690, 694 (2) (177

SE2d 160) (1970) (“[W]hat the judge orally declares is no judgment

until the same has been reduced to writing and entered as such.”).

And, in fact, the case proceeded to the entry of the final divorce

decree, which incorporated the permanent restraining order.

Accordingly, this argument fails.

Next, pointing to a notation in the written divorce decree that

3 At a hearing held after Damaris obtained a temporary restraining order

against Kinlaw in connection with her petition for divorce, Kinlaw’s counsel represented that the parties had engaged in sexual relations after the divorce was initiated. On that basis, the judge orally indicated that he would dismiss the divorce case, but a written order memorializing the oral dismissal was not entered.

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