Newby v. State

288 S.E.2d 889, 161 Ga. App. 805, 1982 Ga. App. LEXIS 2043
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 9, 1982
Docket63154, 63155
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 288 S.E.2d 889 (Newby 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
Newby v. State, 288 S.E.2d 889, 161 Ga. App. 805, 1982 Ga. App. LEXIS 2043 (Ga. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

Pope, Judge.'

Michael Delmar Newby was indicted on three counts of armed robbery (Counts I, VI and VII), two counts of aggravated sodomy (Counts IV and V), one count of rape (Count III), and one count of aggravated assault (Count II). Following severance of Counts I, II and VII defendant was tried on Counts III, IV, V and VI (Case No. 63155) and was convicted of one count of aggravated sodomy, rape and robbery by intimidation; he was acquitted on the other count of aggravated sodomy. While the jury was considering their verdict in this case, defendant was tried on Count I (Case No. 63154) and found guilty of armed robbery. Counts II and VII have been ordered nolle prosequi. Defendant brings these appeals from his convictions and the denial of his motions for new trial in both cases.

Case No. 63155

1. Defendant first enumerates as error the trial court’s overruling his motion to suppress certain physical evidence. This evidence was obtained pursuant to a search warrant from his room in a rooming house located at 2059 East Drive in Decatur. Defendant contends that the subject warrant was invalid because it authorized *806 the search of the entire house and thus was an impermissible general warrant.

The search warrant in this case was issued for the person of defendant and the premises known as 2059 East Drive, Decatur, DeKalb County, Georgia. The items listed on the warrant were certain articles of clothing and a chrome pistol. The warrant provided that it was “requested for the above residence where Michael Newby rents a room.” The evidence of record shows that the defendant was arrested at the subject premises and thereafter incarcerated. At the time of the arrest the officers discovered that defendant only rented one room and that the subject premises was a rooming house. When the officers subsequently executed the search warrant at the rooming house, only defendant’s room was searched.

“To be valid a search warrant must contain a description of the person and premises to be searched with such particularity as to enable a prudent officer executing the warrant to locate the person and place definitely and with reasonable certainty, without depending upon his discretion.” Jones v. State, 126 Ga. App. 841, 842 (192 SE2d 171) (1972). The search warrant in this case meets the foregoing test. The case at bar is factually distinguishable from the two cases cited by defendant in support of this enumeration, Jones v. State, supra, and Miller v. State, 126 Ga. App. 847 (2) (191 SE2d 883) (1972) . In both of these cases the search warrants were found to have insufficiently described the areas to be searched in premises which were not discovered to have been multiple dwelling units until after the search had begun. In our view, the premises described in the search warrant in this case were sufficiently definite to enable the officers who executed the warrant to determine with reasonable certainty the area to be searched, viz., the room occupied by the defendant. See Tomblin v. State, 128 Ga. App. 823 (5) (198 SE2d 366) (1973).

2. In his second enumeration of error defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to represent himself. Following the testimony of the victim, the following colloquy transpired between the trial court, counsel for defendant and the defendant himself: “MR. SCHNEIDER: Your Honor, I believe the Defendant wants me relieved from his case. He doesn’t like me anymore. THE COURT: I’m afraid the Defendant is out of luck, and he is going to have to proceed as he is. MR. SCHNEIDER: He does want to make a motion he wants to represent himself. THE COURT: Do you want to represent yourself? THE DEFENDANT: I want to relieve Mr. Schneider ... I respectfully request you accept my demand to release Mr. Schneider. THE COURT: You want to file that in the form of a motion, you want to put it in the record? THE *807 DEFENDANT: I would like to say it verbally. THE COURT: What he says is he wants to relieve Mr. Schneider as his attorney because of his irresponsibility and his neglect of his case, and what else? THE DEFENDANT: And I feel my privilege is being... I feel my freedom is being jeopardized. THE COURT: He feels his freedom is being jeopardized on Mr. Schneider’s incompetence with the Defendant. THE DEFENDANT: With his illogic. THE COURT: For his illogic judicial decisions. All right, your motion, if it is a motion, is denied, and Mr. Schneider will continue to represent you.”

The record does not support defendant’s contention on appeal that he wished to represent himself. Rather, the foregoing colloquy discloses that defendant was simply dissatisfied with his court-appointed counsel’s conduct of the trial to that point and wanted him replaced. This view is buttressed by defendant’s decision on the preceding day not to be denominated as co-counsel in this case.

“A criminal defendant does have a constitutional right to be defended by counsel of his own selection whenever he is willing and able to employ such counsel. [Cits.] However, an indigent criminal defendant does not have an absolute right to discharge one court-appointed counsel and have another substituted in his place. A request of this sort addresses itself to the sound discretion of the trial court.” Burney v. State, 244 Ga. 33, 35 (257 SE2d 543) (1979), cert. den. Burney v. Georgia, 444 U. S. 970 (1979); see also Loomis v. State, 78 Ga. App. 153 (6) (51 SE2d 13) (1948). We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in this case.

3. Appellant’s third enumeration cites as error the trial court’s failure to charge the jury on the defense of alibi. The record discloses that defendant requested a charge on the law relating to personal identity and that this instruction was included in the trial court’s charge to the jury. The record does not disclose any request by the defendant for a charge on the law relating to alibi and no such charge was given to the jury.

The victim testifed that the defendant was the perpetrator of the crimes committed against her. The defendant testified that he was at home at the time the crimes were committed. “Where the defense of alibi and the question of personal identity are virtually the same defense, the omission of the court to instruct separately on alibi is not error. Cooper v. State, 237 Ga. 288 (2) (227 SE2d 745) (1976); Jones v. State, 235 Ga. 103 (6) (218 SE2d 899) (1975). The trial judge did charge on the law of identification. Hence the omission of the court to instruct separately on alibi, without request, did not affect the outcome of the case and was not error.” Herring v. State, 238 Ga. 288, 289 (232 SE2d 826) (1977).

*808 Case No. 63154

4. Defendant was placed on trial in this case immediately following the conclusion of the foregoing trial. He enumerates as error the trial court’s failure to take “corrective action” in regard to the jury panel and by placing him on trial before jurors who had in part been subjected to the voir dire on the previous case against him and had, in some cases, been stricken by him from the previous jury. The record shows that defendant orally raised his objection to the jury panel prior to the panel being put on him.

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Bluebook (online)
288 S.E.2d 889, 161 Ga. App. 805, 1982 Ga. App. LEXIS 2043, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/newby-v-state-gactapp-1982.