Parks v. State

406 S.E.2d 229, 199 Ga. App. 736, 1991 Ga. App. LEXIS 672
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMay 3, 1991
DocketA91A0335
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 406 S.E.2d 229 (Parks 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
Parks v. State, 406 S.E.2d 229, 199 Ga. App. 736, 1991 Ga. App. LEXIS 672 (Ga. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

Andrews, Judge.

Defendant appeals his conviction of six counts of armed robbery I and one count of kidnapping resulting from a string of robberies be-1 tween September 23, 1988, and October 13, 1988. Defendant was ac-l quitted of one robbery and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on| two others.

Viewed in favor of the verdict, the evidence on Count 2 was that! on September 23, around 9:00 p.m. a man entered Barry’s Bottle! Shop with an onion bag over his head and what looked like a gun,[ partially wrapped in a plastic bag, and demanded money. The onion| bag was mesh and the clerk could see the man’s features and he identified defendant from a photographic lineup and at trial.

On September 30, the Flash Food Store (Count 3) was robbec around 10:00 p.m. by a man who entered the store with a shiril wrapped around his head, obscuring his features. He had a gun anc was approximately six feet tall, weighing 200 pounds. This robber} was videotaped. Britt, the clerk, also worked the morning shift at an] other convenience store, the Stop and Shop (Count 4). She was therq the next morning around 7:00 a.m. when a man dressed the same anc with the same shirt over his head as the Flash Food robber enterec the store and demanded money. This time, he lifted the shirt reí vealing some facial features. Although Britt was not positive about the photo spread, she identified defendant in court as the robber. Thl robber in the videotape had a scar on his left arm, as did defendant

Counts 5 and 6 were the counts upon which no verdict wall reached. The evidence was that on October 3 between 6:30 and 7:01 *737 a.m., the Corral Food Store was robbed by a man with a bag over his head. The clerk was unable to make an identification. On October 6, a Domino’s Pizza was robbed between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. by a man who grabbed the manager from the rear, placed a gun in his back, and demanded money. While the manager was unable to see the robber, he heard the crinkle of a plastic bag worn by the robber. The robber was seen by a delivery man before the incident, reclining on the delivery vehicle. A fingerprint matching defendant’s was found on the vehicle. The delivery man said a picture of defendant which appeared in the newspaper after his arrest looked like the robber.

On October 11, between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m., the West End Package Store (Count 7) was entered by a man wearing a red bag, split up the middle, over his face. He carried a .25 caliber pistol over which he had a little rag. The clerk identified defendant as the robber at trial and the owner, also present during the robbery, identified defendant from the photo spread.

On October 13, between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., Tipplers Package Store (Count 8) was robbed by a man wearing a Payless Shoe Store bag over his head with a white sock over his hand partially concealing what appeared to be a handgun. When he entered the store, he grabbed Sanford, a customer, from behind. He then got money from Sanford (Count 10) and from the store. When he reached over the counter to get the store’s money, the bag nearly slipped off his face and the owner saw him from the front. He identified defendant both from the photo spread and in court. As the robber was leaving the store, he pulled Sanford with him to the door, shoved him back inside, and ran (Count 1, kidnapping).

Also, on October 13, near midnight, a man with a cloth bag over his head and a weapon partially covered with a cloth entered the rear door of the Pizza Hut (Count 9) and robbed it, taking the manager with him to the rear door, where he pushed him back inside and ran. Defendant was acquitted of this count.

All of the robbers appeared to be on foot and ran from the businesses after the incidents.

1. The first enumeration is that the court erred in not granting defendant’s motion to sever Counts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 from the indictment for separate trials. The premise for the motion was that the offenses did not establish a pattern, other than the type of offense charged and the accused. In support of lack of similarity, defendant points to the fact that three different types of establishments, i.e., restaurants, liquor stores and convenience stores, were the victims and that in some instances a facsimile was used, in others a real gun. Nonetheless, defendant did not seek to sever the Pizza Hut and Tipplers counts from each other.

“Where criminal offenses are joined solely on the ground that *738 they are of the same or similar character, the defendant has a right to have the offenses severed. Dingler v. State, 233 Ga. 462 (211 SE2d 752). However, where the offenses are so similar that they show a common scheme or plan or have an identical modus operandi, severance is discretionary with the trial court. . . . ‘(W)here the modus operandi of the perpetrator is so strikingly alike, that the totality of the facts unerringly demonstrate and designate the defendant as the common perpetrator, the offenses may be joined — subject to the right of the defendant to a severance in the interests of justice. [Cits.].’ [Davis v. State, 159 Ga. App. 356 (1) (283 SE2d 286) (1981)] at 357.” Mack v. State, 163 Ga. App. 778, 779 (1) (296 SE2d 115) (1982).

Here, the similarities in the robberies, i.e., the robber’s method of obscuring his face and weapon or facsimile, the fact he appeared to arrive and leave on foot, the timing of the robberies (either early morning or in the evening, none during the standard work day), and the fact they all occurred within a two-week period would justify the incidents’ admission in each trial even if severed, taking them out of the category of joinder solely because they are of a same or similar character. Wilson v. State, 188 Ga. App. 779, 780 (1) (374 SE2d 325) (1988). There was no error.

2. Defendant contends that the admission into evidence of the photo identification sheets filled out by three of the victims after viewing the photo spread was error because the sheets constituted a “continuing witness.” The sheets contained a row of six numbers, one of which the victims circled if they made an identification. The sheet signed by the owner of the West End Package Store also contained the comment that “[i]t has to be #2 because the mustache and lips matched the robber. . . .”

“ ‘In Georgia the “continuing witness” objection is based on the notion that written testimony is heard by the jury when read from the witness stand just as oral testimony is heard when given from the witness stand. But, it is unfair and places undue emphasis on written testimony for the writing to go out with the jury to be read again during deliberations, while oral testimony is received but once.’ [Cit.] This ‘continuing witness’ objection usually concerns testimonial documentary evidence, such as [an] affidavit . . ., and depositions of [sic] interrogatories. [Cit.] However, the objection has also been applied to unsworn, written dying declarations and written confessions or statements of criminal defendants, on the grounds that such statements are the equivalent of depositions. [Cits.] The photo lineup document cannot reasonably be categorized as the functional equivalent of a deposition.

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Bluebook (online)
406 S.E.2d 229, 199 Ga. App. 736, 1991 Ga. App. LEXIS 672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parks-v-state-gactapp-1991.