Murray v. State

418 S.E.2d 624, 203 Ga. App. 858, 92 Fulton County D. Rep. 263, 1992 Ga. App. LEXIS 587
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedApril 8, 1992
DocketA92A0576
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 418 S.E.2d 624 (Murray v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murray v. State, 418 S.E.2d 624, 203 Ga. App. 858, 92 Fulton County D. Rep. 263, 1992 Ga. App. LEXIS 587 (Ga. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

Birdsong, Presiding Judge.

Boris Dexter Murray appeals his judgment of conviction of trafficking in cocaine and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, and his sentence.

The police obtained consent from appellant’s stepfather to search the home of the stepfather and appellant’s mother. Although appellant no longer lived at home, he occasionally used a bedroom in the house that he had occupied when growing up and living with his parents. Appellant had stayed several nights in that room within the week in which the search was conducted. In this bedroom, the police found chunks of rock cocaine in two ziplock bags placed inside a larger bag within a shoe box located under the bed. The cocaine had a wholesale value of about $16,000 and a street retail value in a range of $26,000-$55,000 depending upon varying marketing factors.

The shoe size shown on the Cole Haan shoe box was size “12M,” which was a size appellant could wear as his shoe size was 11-1/2; his stepfather’s shoe size was 9-1/2. A black card holder was found beside the box. Two or three cards in the card holder had appellant’s name on them and appeared to be business cards labelled “Universal Enterprises.” An automatic pistol was found under the mattress of the bed with two hollow-point bullets therein. Various business cards and phone numbers were found; a set of broken gram scales, together with 42 small coin envelopes, were found in a bag placed under a mirrored dresser drawer. Appellant, who works as a car detailer being paid $100-$150 every two weeks, has worn a beeper which he asserts is needed so that his work place can contact him when a car needs to be done.

Although the factual issue is contested, appellant’s stepfather initially testified appellant had a key to the house; and, that no one else slept or stayed in the bedroom. Subsequently, the stepfather at[859]*859tempted to modify or recant his testimony about the key by testifying that: “After talking to my wife, she made me remember that [appellant] did not have keys to all of the locks up until the time that her daughter got married.” And he also testified it was after he went home and talked with his wife that: “I remembered the time that he did not have a key.”

Both appellant’s stepfather and mother denied knowledge of the cocaine; however, appellant’s mother did testify that the pistol belonged to her. Two months prior to this incident, the stepfather had found some bags and some scales, with white powder residue on them, in the laundry room of the house; when confronted about these items, appellant told his mother they belonged to a friend.

A member of the Clayton County Narcotics Unit expressed his expert opinion regarding various drug sale procedures, including the significance of possession of a beeper, phone and beeper numbers, small envelopes, scales, and a gun by those selling drugs. He also testified that a silver tip hollow-point bullet is an anti-personnel round, not a target shooting round.

A member of the records and identification division of the sheriff’s department was qualified without objection as an expert witness in the field of fingerprint comparison. He testified regarding various latent prints found on items in the room and compared those prints to a known print of appellant. (We note some confusion exists in the record regarding whether the latent print, State Exhibit 35, was taken from State Exhibit 13 or State Exhibit 14, and whether the latent print, State Exhibit 36, came from State Exhibit 13 or State Exhibit 14. On appeal we are concerned with evidence sufficiency and will view the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict.) Although he was shown to have issued an earlier report to the contrary, the State’s fingerprint comparison expert testified inter alia: that a known print of appellant matched a latent print found on a bag with the gram scale and small envelopes; that a known print of appellant matched a latent print found on the bag in which the above bag, gram scale and small envelopes were found; and that a latent print left on a bag, which was the large ziplock bag that contained the two bags of rock cocaine, was made by appellant’s right middle finger.

Appellant denied any knowledge of the cocaine, denied possession of the weapon and denied he had ever sold drugs; he admitted the card holder was his and that he used the gram scale to weigh gold. He also admitted to writing certain rap or so-called hip-hop songs for a rap group he was in; some of these songs had certain lyrics pertaining to drugs. Held:

1. Appellant asserts the trial court erred in allowing the State to introduce the opinion of their expert in fingerprint comparison since the State failed to provide this information as requested in defend[860]*860ant’s discovery requests.

The record reveals that appellant never filed a motion for copies of written scientific reports, pursuant to the provisions of OCGA § 17-7-211, either by expressly citing the statute or by demanding that the scientific reports, whether inculpatory or exculpatory, should be furnished prior to the statutory ten-day limit. Compare Massey v. State, 251 Ga. 515 (307 SE2d 489). Rather, appellant made a general motion for disclosure under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (83 SC 1194, 10 LE2d 215), and a motion to produce pursuant to OCGA § 24-10-26, which included inter alia a demand for production of all reports and the results and copies of all reports of any scientific tests, experiments or studies made in connection with this case. Compare Mercer v. State, 169 Ga App. 723 (4) (314 SE2d 729).

As no adequate demand was made pursuant to OCGA § 17-7-211 for production of scientific reports, any issue concerning the failure timely to provide information pursuant to this statute is not before us on appeal. State v. Madigan, 249 Ga. 571 (292 SE2d 406); State v. Meminger, 249 Ga. 561 (1) (292 SE2d 681); Mercer, supra; see Moss v. State, 191 Ga. App. 387 (1) (381 SE2d 765).

As appellant did not argue in his brief or provide any citation of authority in support of a contention that it was error to fail to provide timely this information either pursuant to a Brady motion or a motion to produce under OCGA § 24-10-26, these issues have been abandoned on appeal. Court of Appeals Rule 15 (c) (2). Moreover, neither Brady nor OCGA § 24-10-26 mandates the disclosure of materials before trial. See Glenn v. State, 255 Ga. 533 (2) (340 SE2d 609); Wilson v. State, 246 Ga. 62 (1) (268 SE2d 895). Additionally, all information was supplied to appellant during trial if not sooner, and assuming without deciding such information would qualify as a scientific report, no motion for continuance or request for recess was entered, as a trial tactic, in order to allow appellant an opportunity to evaluate further the information obtained.

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544 S.E.2d 765 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2001)
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426 S.E.2d 392 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
418 S.E.2d 624, 203 Ga. App. 858, 92 Fulton County D. Rep. 263, 1992 Ga. App. LEXIS 587, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murray-v-state-gactapp-1992.