People of Michigan v. Anthony Joseph Gelia

CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 21, 2020
Docket344130
StatusUnpublished

This text of People of Michigan v. Anthony Joseph Gelia (People of Michigan v. Anthony Joseph Gelia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People of Michigan v. Anthony Joseph Gelia, (Mich. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

STATE OF MICHIGAN

COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED January 21, 2020 Plaintiff-Appellee,

v No. 344130 Jackson Circuit Court ANTHONY JOSEPH GELIA, LC No. 16-005361-FC

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: CAMERON, P.J., and SHAPIRO and SWARTZLE, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant forcibly entered a home and discharged a handgun multiple times, while streaming live video of his conduct on social media. One of the bullets shot by defendant struck and killed a woman who was with her young child. Defendant appeals as of right from the jury conviction of first-degree felony murder and other crimes, arguing that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, that his sentence for the conviction of first-degree felony murder constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and that the trial court erred when it admitted into evidence the audio recording of a 911 call and a video that defendant recorded of his own conduct before the shooting. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

This case arises from the death of a woman in Jackson, Michigan, in November 2016. On the night in question, defendant was with his girlfriend and his brother’s ex-girlfriend, who drove him to a house in Jackson. The driver informed defendant that his brother was staying at the house. Various witnesses testified that defendant’s brother was indeed present in the house, where he had been staying with defendant’s ex-girlfriend.

Upon arrival, defendant violently forced open the door to the house, wielding a handgun in one hand and his cellphone in the other. Defendant recorded himself breaking into the house and firing his handgun several times. Defendant did not record the entire incident, however, and witness testimony presented at trial indicated that defendant fired his handgun a total of nine times, while nine shell casings were found in the house. Defendant fired four shots into the living-room floor, one shot into a kitchen cupboard, and four shots in the basement. One of

-1- those shots struck and killed the victim. At trial, defendant did not contest that he forcibly entered the house, that he fired the handgun inside the house, and that he fired the shot that killed the victim.

The homeowner testified that he was upstairs when he heard a knock at the front door. He looked out the window and saw a vehicle he did not recognize. As he headed downstairs, he saw defendant kick in the front door and begin firing a handgun. The homeowner admitted that defendant never spoke to him, looked at him, pointed the handgun at him, or moved toward him. Instead, defendant moved through the living room, firing the handgun. The homeowner retreated upstairs and called 911, and the prosecutor played an audio recording of this 911 call for the jury.

The victim, her child, and her boyfriend were all in the basement when defendant began shooting. The victim’s boyfriend testified that defendant pointed a handgun at him while defendant was on the stairs leading to the basement, and that defendant fired twice at him. The victim’s boyfriend also described how he ran into a bedroom, slammed the door, called 911, and then heard additional gunshots. He testified that defendant saw him enter the bedroom and close the bedroom door. Although defendant never attempted to enter the bedroom after him, defendant shot twice through the door. Once in the bedroom, the victim’s boyfriend called 911. As he did so, he noticed the victim lying on the ground with her eyes open. He noticed blood and began to scream and yell for the victim.

The trial court allowed the prosecutor to play an audio recording of the boyfriend’s 911 call for the jury. Before trial, defendant had moved to exclude the recording of this 911 call from evidence, arguing that it was not relevant under MRE 401 and unfairly prejudicial under MRE 403. At the pretrial motion hearing, the trial court rejected defendant’s arguments and ruled that the recording was admissible. Accordingly, the trial court allowed the prosecutor to play the 911 call for the jury at trial.

After firing his handgun in the house, defendant fled the scene. Paramedics arrived and transported the victim to the hospital where she was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound. Meanwhile, police stopped and arrested defendant in his vehicle. Defendant was in possession of a handgun on which the serial number had been obliterated. The arresting police officer testified that defendant had alcohol on his breath and that his speech was slurred at the time of his arrest.

Police interviewed defendant and the prosecutor played a recording of the interview for the jury. In that interview, defendant confessed to the shooting. Defendant stated that he was with his girlfriend and his brother’s ex-girlfriend on the night of the shooting. He claimed that his brother had threatened to kill him. He stated that, when he arrived at the house in Jackson, he peeked in the window and saw his ex-girlfriend in the living room. Defendant admitted that he had loaded 13 bullets into the handgun, and that he fired shots inside the house, but claimed that he was not aiming at anyone because he just wanted to scare everyone in the house. Defendant stated that he deserved to go to prison for what he had done, and that he planned to flee to Mexico after the shooting. Numerous times during this interview, defendant expressed the desire to kill himself.

-2- During this interview, defendant also told police that he had consumed marijuana and alcohol, that he was intoxicated, and that he was too drunk to drive his own vehicle. Accordingly, police administered a breathalyzer test to defendant. Although the prosecutor did not admit the results of the breathalyzer test into evidence, the interviewing officer stated that the test revealed a .09 bodily alcohol content, which exceeded the legal limit for driving a motor vehicle. The police officer testified, however, that he thought defendant was not too intoxicated to have a cogent conversation with police during the interview.

The next day, police again interviewed defendant. The prosecutor played a recording of the second interview for the jury. At this second interview, defendant told police that he was drunk and that he had taken Xanax on the day of the shooting. Defendant did not claim that he had taken Xanax involuntarily or that someone had slipped it into his drink without his knowledge. Defendant again confessed to the shooting, but stated that he was persuaded to do what he did by his brother’s ex-girlfriend. When defendant realized that he had killed someone, he lamented, “I just killed someone’s mom,” and asked if he was going to be spending the rest of his life in prison.

During cross-examination, the police officer who interviewed defendant admitted that defendant had the opportunity to shoot one of the guests in the living room, but that instead of doing so, defendant only fired shots into the living-room floor. The investigating officer also conceded that defendant was consistent in stating—during his interviews with police— that he did not intend to kill anyone.

Police obtained two videos of defendant’s conduct that had been posted to social media on the night of the incident. The trial court allowed the prosecutor to play these videos for the jury, over defendant’s objection. In the first video, defendant stated several times that he wanted to shoot or kill people. Specifically, defendant made repeated threats to shoot police officers. Defendant also made more threats to shoot other people or saw their heads off, and the video showed him running one of the chainsaws that he had in the vehicle, while making these threats.

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People of Michigan v. Anthony Joseph Gelia, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-of-michigan-v-anthony-joseph-gelia-michctapp-2020.