Pippen v. State

791 S.E.2d 795, 299 Ga. 710, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 608
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedOctober 3, 2016
DocketS16A1126
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 791 S.E.2d 795 (Pippen 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
Pippen v. State, 791 S.E.2d 795, 299 Ga. 710, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 608 (Ga. 2016).

Opinion

Hunstein, Justice.

Appellant Paulette Pippen was convicted of felony murder and cruelty to a person 65 years of age or older in connection with the November 2010 death of Joseph Vernon Ray.1 Pippen appeals, alleging that the evidence was insufficient to sustain her conviction, that the trial court gave erroneous jury instructions, and that she received ineffective assistance of counsel. Finding no error, we affirm.

1. Pippen contends that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain her conviction. We disagree. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the evidence adduced at trial established as follows. At all relevant times, 75-year-old victim Joseph Vernon Ray resided at Jackson Personal Care Home in Greene County, Georgia, which was owned by co-defendants Vernon and Emma Jackson. The victim was nonverbal and required personal care due to his physical limitations and severe mental deficits. Appellant Paulette Pippen, a licensed Certified Nursing Assistant (“CNA”), was responsible for the victim’s daily care; this included bathing, dressing, grooming and feeding him, as well as cleaning his room and administering his medications.

[711]*711On or about November 9, 2010, the victim received first degree burns due to bathing in scalding hot water. After this incident, co-defendant Vernon Jackson told Pippen not to call 911 because he did not want to lose his business license. Pippen followed his direction. The next day, Ray was taken to his primary care doctor by Vernon J ackson for a previously scheduled check-up. During the visit, the doctor discovered a small section of first/second degree burns on Ray’s leg; the doctor prescribed an antibiotic and burn cream to treat the injury. The rest of Ray’s injuries were not reported to the doctor during that visit, nor were they ever reported to Ray’s next of kin.

On December 22, 2010, Ray was admitted to Athens Regional Medical Center for treatment of what the doctors believed at the time to be extensive third degree burns to the lower half of his body. Witnesses recalled that the victim was very frail and small. He had large patches of black skin and was emitting an odor akin to the smell of rotting flesh. The doctors determined that the victim was malnourished, dehydrated, anemic, possibly in renal failure, and at risk for sepsis.

The victim was subsequently transferred to the Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. Ray arrived at the Burn Center in a contracted fetal position; his muscles were so tight that doctors could not move his extremities. Ray’s treating physician opined at trial that, based on the severity of the constriction of the muscles and the presence of large bilateral blood clots in Ray’s legs, the victim had not used his extremities for two to four weeks. The doctor concluded that the victim suffered from multiple stage-four bedsores throughout the lower half of his body. The bedsores were so severe, and had become so infected, that the doctors could see the victim’s bones and tendons through the open sores. Indeed, because the victim’s health condition was so poor, the hospital contacted protective services. Ray later died at the Burn Center from sepsis and organ failure related to infections stemming from his multiple bedsores.

Pippen admitted at trial that, prior to being taken to the hospital, the victim was not eating well and began to smell and that portions of his skin had turned black. Further, despite being a licensed CNA, she claimed that she had never received any training on identifying or treating burns or bedsores. She admitted that, while she reported all of these issues to Vernon Jackson “several times,” she did not tell the victim’s family or call 911, as it was the personal care home’s policy to notify Vernon Jackson of any issues and then follow his instructions.

Based on the foregoing, the record shows that there was sufficient evidence to enable a rational trier of fact to conclude beyond a [712]*712reasonable doubt that Pippen was guilty of the crime for which she was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

2. After the close of evidence, the trial court instructed the jury on many aspects of Georgia law. Specifically, the trial court began its jury charge by reading verbatim the counts in Pippen’s indictment. The court then charged the jury on: the State’s burden of proof; Pippen’s presumption of innocence; direct and circumstantial evidence; parties to a crime; intent; mere presence; mere association; grave suspicion; misfortune or accident; criminal negligence; misapprehension of fact; felony murder; and cruelty to a person 65 years of age or older. Pippen’s trial counsel did not object to the court’s charge.

Now, on appeal, Pippen alleges that the trial court erred during its charge by: (1) instructing the jury that Pippen could be found guilty if she had “immediate charge or custody” of Ray despite being charged as a party to the crime; (2) instructing the jury that Pippen could be convicted for willfully depriving Ray of “necessary sustenance” when she was not indicted for that act; (3) failing to define “willfully deprives” to the jury and failing to charge the jury that acting “under a physician’s direction” is a defense to the elder cruelty statute. Because counsel did not object to any of these charges, we review for plain error, “meaning that we will reverse the trial court only ‘if the instructional error was not affirmatively waived .. ., was obvious beyond reasonable dispute, likely affected the outcome of the proceedings, and seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.’ ” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Brown v. State, 297 Ga. 685, 691 (4) (777 SE2d 466) (2015). “In reviewing a challenge to the trial court’s jury instruction, we view the charge as a whole to determine whether the jury was fully and fairly instructed on the law of the case.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Allaben v. State, 299 Ga. 253, 259 (3) (d) (787 SE2d 711) (2016).

(a) “Immediate charge or custody” instruction

Pippen first alleges that the trial court erred by instructing the jury that she could be found guilty if she had “immediate charge or custody” of the victim, because she was charged as a party to the crime. As discussed above, in addition to reading Pippen’s indictment to the jury, the trial court charged the jury on parties to a crime, intent, mere presence, mere association, grave suspicion, and cruelty to a person 65 years of age or older. Reading the jury charge as a whole, Pippen’s claim that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that she could be found guilty if she had “immediate charge or custod/’ of Ray fails because she has not demonstrated that the alleged error was obvious beyond reasonable dispute, let alone that it likely affected the outcome of the proceedings. The trial court’s [713]*713instruction concerning the State’s burden of proof regarding whether Pippen had “immediate charge or custody” of Ray was properly tailored to the indictment and was part of a pattern charge that correctly tracked Georgia law. Accordingly, we see no error.

(b) Willfully depriving “necessary sustenance” instruction

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Bluebook (online)
791 S.E.2d 795, 299 Ga. 710, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pippen-v-state-ga-2016.