Manley v. State

672 S.E.2d 654, 284 Ga. 840, 2009 Fulton County D. Rep. 269, 2009 Ga. LEXIS 4
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 26, 2009
DocketS08A1921
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 672 S.E.2d 654 (Manley 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
Manley v. State, 672 S.E.2d 654, 284 Ga. 840, 2009 Fulton County D. Rep. 269, 2009 Ga. LEXIS 4 (Ga. 2009).

Opinions

Melton, Justice.

Charles Travis Manley appeals his conviction for the malice murder of Vieng Phoxivay, contending, among other things, that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial after the State failed to properly disclose the location from which a certain knife had originally been seized after the crime was committed.1 For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the record shows that, on October 10, 1987, Phoxivay drove to the home of her boyfriend, James Kenneth Baker, Jr., for a brief visit before going to work. Later, while driving to work, Phoxivay had a flat tire, and Manley, who lived and worked nearby, stopped and offered to give Phoxivay a ride back to Baker’s house. Manley was driving a green 1975 Chevrolet El Camino with a white roof. After dropping off Phoxivay, Manley departed from the Baker residence only to return later with a spare tire to fix Phoxivay’s vehicle. Phoxivay then left [841]*841with Manley and disappeared. Several witnesses saw Phoxivay leave with Manley in his car. Phoxivay’s vehicle was found abandoned, and a number of items were retrieved from its trunk, including a hunting knife with unidentified fibers on its blade.

Approximately two years later, Phoxivay’s skeletal remains were found in a remote wooded area near back roads with which Manley was familiar. Authorities also discovered a white blouse, material from a knitted sweater, strips of clothing tied in knots, and a pant leg that had been cut from the rest of the garment. From this evidence, GBI agents deduced that Phoxivay had been tied to a tree with strips of her own clothing, sexually assaulted, and then murdered.

On November 13, 1989, GBI Agent Gary Rothwell interviewed Lucretia Darlene Boynton, a neighbor of Phoxivay’s boyfriend, Baker, regarding the events of October 10, 1987. Boynton recounted seeing an El Camino matching the one owned by Manley, and she described the driver as a heavy set white male in his thirties or forties, with a full beard and mustache and wearing glasses. This description matched Manley’s appearance at the time. However, Boynton was not able to identify Manley from a photographic line-up. On September 5, 1991, Agent Bothwell also showed Baker a photographic line-up which included Manley’s picture from September 1, 1990. Baker did not positively identify anyone at that time.

Between July 1992 and early 2005, the investigation slowed. On April 8, 2005, Investigator Clay Bryant, who was handling the case at the time, interviewed Baker again. Baker identified Manley’s vehicle as the one he had seen on October 10, 1987 and identified Manley’s picture from the same photographic line-up he had been shown in 1991. A few days later, on April 11, 2005, Investigator Bryant interviewed Boynton once more. Like Baker, Boynton identified both Manley and his vehicle out of the photographic line-up. Furthermore, Boynton informed investigators that she had seen Phoxivay leave the trailer park in Manley’s vehicle on October 10, 1987.

One week later, Investigator Bryant interviewed Johnny Wentz. Wentz lived next door to Baker in the Moreland Trailer Park on October 10, 1987. Wentz confirmed that Manley’s vehicle was the one he had seen in front of Baker’s home on October 10, 1987 and stated that Manley was driving the vehicle on that day.

Additional evidence showed that, shortly after the murder, Manley repainted his El Camino, and, shortly after Phoxivay’s remains were discovered, he sold the car to a man in Alabama. Furthermore, similar transaction evidence was introduced which showed that, prior to the murder of Phoxivay: (1) Manley raped a 15-year-old girl at knife-point; (2) Manley tried to force his ex-wife to have sexual relations at gun-point; and (3) Manley attacked a [842]*842teenaged girl at gun-point after forcing her boyfriend to crawl into the trunk of the car they were parked in.

This evidence was sufficient to enable the jury to find Manley guilty of the murder of Phoxivay beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

1. Citing Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (83 SC 1194, 10 LE2d 215) (1963) and its progeny, Manley contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion for a mistrial after the State allegedly violated discovery rules by introducing evidence that a knife found after the murder had been located in the trunk of Phoxivay’s car, not at Baker’s home.

The record shows that, following Phoxivay’s disappearance, police recovered a knife with fibers on it from the trunk of Phox-ivay’s abandoned car. A property receipt for the knife was placed in Phoxivay’s original missing persons file that was created in 1987. In November 1989, after Phoxivay’s remains had been discovered, Agent Rothwell created a new death investigation file to hold evidence regarding the newly-established murder case. In this process, Agent Rothwell pulled certain police records, including Phox-ivay’s original missing persons file, copied these records, and attached the copies to his own separate file regarding the ongoing murder investigation. For some unknown reason, a copy of the property receipt for the knife did not make its way into Agent Rothwell’s death investigation file, and the original missing persons file was eventually sent to storage. In 2005, after the investigation was reopened, Agent Rothwell reviewed his death investigation file, and he created a synopsis of the file to assist Investigator Bryant, who was taking over the case. In this synopsis, Agent Rothwell noted that the origin of the knife, as well as a number of other items seized, was uncertain and stated that the items could have come from either Baker’s home or Phoxivay’s vehicle.2 As part of trial discovery, Manley received this death investigation file which included Agent Rothwell’s synopsis but excluded the original property receipt.

During opening statement, Manley argued, among other things, that Phoxivay’s murder was committed by Baker. To support this contention, Manley stated that the evidence would show that: Baker and Phoxivay had a violent domestic relationship; Phoxivay was pregnant with Baker’s child and Baker wanted her to terminate the pregnancy; Baker threatened to kill Phoxivay three days before her [843]*843disappearance; Baker never attempted to contact or find Phoxivay following her disappearance; Baker chose not to attend Phoxivay’s memorial service; Baker was a self-proclaimed “hellion” with whom Phoxivay was afraid to be alone; Baker was originally a suspect in the murder and had no alibi; and friends and family members had speculated that Baker may have been responsible for the murder. In addition, Manley argued that the knife in question had been taken from Baker’s home, had been lost by the State, and had fibers on it which would have shown that it was used to cut Phoxivay’s clothing prior to her murder. Later, during trial, Manley elicited testimony to support his contentions, including an admission by Baker that police had searched his house and found the knife there.

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Bluebook (online)
672 S.E.2d 654, 284 Ga. 840, 2009 Fulton County D. Rep. 269, 2009 Ga. LEXIS 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manley-v-state-ga-2009.