Reaves v. State

739 S.E.2d 368, 292 Ga. 545, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 430, 2013 WL 776592, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 202
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 4, 2013
DocketS13A0222
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 739 S.E.2d 368 (Reaves 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
Reaves v. State, 739 S.E.2d 368, 292 Ga. 545, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 430, 2013 WL 776592, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 202 (Ga. 2013).

Opinion

THOMPSON, Presiding Justice.

Appellant Rodney Reaves was convicted of the felony murder of his 11-year-old daughter and other related crimes.1 He appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial, asserting that the trial court erred by excluding the testimony of certain witnesses and failing to properly instruct the jury and that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance. Finding no error, we affirm.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence shows that appellant called 911 after he discovered his daughter, Joella, lying dead in her bed. The medical examiner determined Joella died as a result of renal failure triggered by a release of myoglobin caused by severe trauma to her body. Joella’s buttocks were so severely beaten that fat cells liquefied, eventually causing blockage in her kidneys and kidney failure. She also suffered from torn tricep and shoulder muscles, injuries which required great amounts of force and would have caused significant pain; abrasions on her head; pattern injuries on her face; two black eyes; bruised lips and gums; a tear on one ear; puncture wounds on her face; and injuries covering her legs. Joella’s wrists were swollen in a manner consistent with having been tied with wire. Police found a baseball bat and broken umbrella in the home matching the child’s pattern injuries.

Appellant gave a statement to police admitting that in the days preceding Joella’s death, he and Joella’s stepmother, Charlott, had disciplined Joella by placing her in time out in the garage and ordering her to “write her lines,” an exercise which required her to repeatedly write, “I am a thief, a liar, and good for nothing, and I stink” on a pad of paper. Over the course of four days, appellant and his wife put Joella in the garage, held her down, spanked her, hit her [546]*546with a wooden spoon, and tied her up with speaker wire. On the evening before her death, appellant asserts Joella calmed down, and they released her. She said she was fine and went to bed. About the same time, appellant, who was in the Navy and assigned to a ship in Norfolk, Virginia, left to return to his ship. He claimed he drove as far as Durham, North Carolina, then turned around and arrived home early the next morning to find Joella dead.

The evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

2. Appellant asserts the trial court erred by excluding the hearsay testimony of several witnesses concerning statements Charlott made about her relationship with Joella and previous disciplinary actions she had taken. Each of these witnesses, appellant argues, would have provided testimony admissible under the necessity exception to the hearsay rule or the exception for confessions by a co-indictee. See OCGA § 24-3-1 (b); Drane v. State, 271 Ga. 849, 852-853 (523 SE2d 301) (1999).

While some of the testimony proffered by appellant may have been probative regarding the difficult relationship between Charlott and Joella, none constitutes a confession as to what occurred during the relevant time period or pertaining to the crimes for which appellant was charged. Accordingly, the trial court did not err by refusing to admit the challenged testimony as the confessions of a co-indictee.

Nor was this evidence admissible under the necessity exception to the hearsay rule. At the time of appellant’s trial in 2009, OCGA § 24-3-1 (b) precluded the admission of hearsay evidence except in specified cases from necessity.2 In order for hearsay to be admitted under the necessity exception, the party offering the testimony must show that the declarant’s testimony is relevant and more probative of a material fact than other available evidence and that it exhibits particular guarantees of trustworthiness. McNaughton v. State, 290 Ga. 894 (3) (725 SE2d 590) (2012).

In assessing whether an out-of-court statement has sufficient indicia of trustworthiness, this Court looks at the totality of the circumstances; the initial determination as to whether a statement is trustworthy is a matter for the trial [547]*547court’s discretion, the exercise of which will not be overturned absent an abuse of that discretion. [Cit.]

Brown v. State, 291 Ga. 892, 896 (734 SE2d 23) (2012).

(a) Nedra Ball was a friend of Charlott who lived in Texas but had known Charlott for many years. Ball stated she talked with Charlott several times each week and often on weekends. Charlott confided in Ball about Joella’s behavior, stating she was having problems with Joella and had put her in the garage. Ball admitted, however, that she had no contact with Charlott the week before or any time after the crimes and she did not learn about Joella’s death for more than two years. Although Charlott’s statements to Ball exhibited some guarantees of trustworthiness because Charlott and Ball were close friends who frequently talked about personal matters, we do not find her testimony is more probative of a material fact than other available evidence. Rather, this testimony was cumulative of other legally admissible evidence, including appellant’s statements to police regarding what Charlott told him had been happening at home while he was away. See Nix v. State, 280 Ga. 141 (5) (625 SE2d 746) (2006). Similarly, even assuming it was error to exclude Ball’s testimony that she heard Charlott call Joella a “bitch,” exclusion of this evidence was harmless in light of other evidence properly admitted demonstrating the difficult and contentious relationship between Charlott and Joella.

(b) Appellant proffered the testimony of John Roberts, Charlott’s supervisor at work, who would have testified that Charlott told him Joella was bigger than her and that Charlott got angry when she spoke of Joella. The record is devoid, however, of any evidence regarding Charlott’s relationship with Roberts other than as supervisor and employee, any evidence about the context in which the statements were made, or any evidence corroborating Charlott’s statements.3 Considering the totality of the circumstances, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by finding the evidence presented was insufficient to establish the requisite guarantee of trustworthiness. Compare McNaughton, supra, 290 Ga. 894 (3) (b) (victim’s statements to supervisor were admissible under necessity exception because they were part of spontaneous exchanges between the victim and witness, the victim had no reason to lie to the witness, and victim’s statements about physical abuse were corroborated by her visible injuries).

[548]*548(c) Ebony Johnson would have testified that Charlott told her she felt uncomfortable having Joella sleep near her, that Joella needed to be separated from the family, and that she placed Joella in the garage. As to Johnson’s relationship with Charlott, she stated they were friends.

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Bluebook (online)
739 S.E.2d 368, 292 Ga. 545, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 430, 2013 WL 776592, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reaves-v-state-ga-2013.