Lundy v. State

Supreme Court of Georgia

Lundy v. State

453 S.E.2d 466, 265 Ga. 30

CourtSupreme Court of Georgia

DecidedFebruary 20, 1995

DocketS94A1218

StatusPublished

Cited by8 cases

This text of 453 S.E.2d 466 (Lundy 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.

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Lundy v. State, 453 S.E.2d 466, 265 Ga. 30 (Ga. 1995).

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Sears, Justice.

Alfred Lundy was tried and convicted in one trial for the November 1991 murder of Pamela Moore and the May 1992 murder of Marie Hollingshed.¹ Lundy was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. We affirm the convictions and sentences.

1. Lundy contends his motion to sever the offenses should have been granted. We disagree.

“Whenever two or more offenses have been joined for trial solely on the ground that they are of the same or similar character, the defendant shall have a right to a severance of the offenses.” Dingler v. State, 233 Ga. 462, 463 (211 SE2d 752) (1975). However, a trial court’s refusal to sever is not an abuse of discretion “where the offenses are so similar that they show a common scheme or plan or have an identical modus operandi.” Mack v. State, 163 Ga. App. 778 (1) (296 SE2d 115) (1982). We find that the circumstances of the two offenses in this case are so similar that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the appellant’s severance motion. Both victims were young, African-American women who were acquainted with [31]*31Lundy socially and who Lundy referred to as “chicken heads,” or women who sell sex for drugs. There was evidence that Lundy had voluntary sexual relations with both women. Both victims died from manual strangulation, and both sustained blunt trauma to the head and other bodily injuries. In each case, there was evidence that the victim had been sexually assaulted, and there was sperm in each victim’s vagina. Both bodies were found partially nude and both had been, in effect, thrown away (one left in a burned-out building and the other put in a garbage bag and left in a dumpster).

Decided February 20, 1995. William M. Shurling III, for appellant.

2. The trial court did not err in admitting as similar transaction evidence Lundy’s 1972 guilty plea to the manual strangulation death of another woman, with whom he had a sexual relationship and whose nude and beaten body he dumped in a storage bin. See Freeman v. State, 264 Ga. 27 (440 SE2d 181) (1994).

3. When considered in the light most favorable to the verdict, we find the evidence sufficient to permit a rational trier of fact to find the appellant guilty of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur, except Fletcher, J., who dissents.

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Sears, Justice.

Alfred Lundy was tried and convicted in one trial for the November 1991 murder of Pamela Moore and the May 1992 murder of Marie Hollingshed.¹ Lundy was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. We affirm the convictions and sentences.

1. Lundy contends his motion to sever the offenses should have been granted. We disagree.

“Whenever two or more offenses have been joined for trial solely on the ground that they are of the same or similar character, the defendant shall have a right to a severance of the offenses.” Dingler v. State, 233 Ga. 462, 463 (211 SE2d 752) (1975). However, a trial court’s refusal to sever is not an abuse of discretion “where the offenses are so similar that they show a common scheme or plan or have an identical modus operandi.” Mack v. State, 163 Ga. App. 778 (1) (296 SE2d 115) (1982). We find that the circumstances of the two offenses in this case are so similar that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the appellant’s severance motion. Both victims were young, African-American women who were acquainted with [31]*31Lundy socially and who Lundy referred to as “chicken heads,” or women who sell sex for drugs. There was evidence that Lundy had voluntary sexual relations with both women. Both victims died from manual strangulation, and both sustained blunt trauma to the head and other bodily injuries. In each case, there was evidence that the victim had been sexually assaulted, and there was sperm in each victim’s vagina. Both bodies were found partially nude and both had been, in effect, thrown away (one left in a burned-out building and the other put in a garbage bag and left in a dumpster).

Decided February 20, 1995. William M. Shurling III, for appellant.

2. The trial court did not err in admitting as similar transaction evidence Lundy’s 1972 guilty plea to the manual strangulation death of another woman, with whom he had a sexual relationship and whose nude and beaten body he dumped in a storage bin. See Freeman v. State, 264 Ga. 27 (440 SE2d 181) (1994).

3. When considered in the light most favorable to the verdict, we find the evidence sufficient to permit a rational trier of fact to find the appellant guilty of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur, except Fletcher, J., who dissents.

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