Roberts v. State

824 S.E.2d 326, 305 Ga. 257
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 18, 2019
DocketS18A1440
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 824 S.E.2d 326 (Roberts 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
Roberts v. State, 824 S.E.2d 326, 305 Ga. 257 (Ga. 2019).

Opinion

Warren, Justice.

**257Dameino Roberts was convicted of felony murder during the commission of an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime in connection with the shooting death of Jhalil King.1 On appeal, Roberts **258contends that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions, that the trial court erred by excluding certain testimony and by expressing an opinion on certain evidence in violation of OCGA § 17-8-57, and that Roberts was denied the effective assistance of counsel. We disagree and affirm.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdicts, the evidence presented at Roberts's trial showed that on the night of September 26, 2014, Jhalil King was at a nightclub with Ciara Lewis, who previously had a romantic relationship with Roberts. Roberts was also there and began an argument with King. At some point, the two men left the club and walked across the street, where they began "tussling," punching, and "flipping" one another. Although King was not serious about the fight at first, he ultimately won.

At some point after the fight, Lewis went across the street from the nightclub and sat in a car with King. Both Lewis and a second eyewitness testified that later that night, while King and Lewis sat together, Roberts came around a nearby building, approached the car on King's side, "slung" his arm in the car, and said "[d]on't nobody move." Roberts then fired several gunshots, one of which fatally wounded King. Roberts did not reach into the car to take anything out of King's pockets. Instead, Roberts ran away and fired additional shots back towards the car. Footage from a surveillance camera confirmed that a person, whom officers could not identify from the video, walked up to the side of the car and quickly ran away.

The next day, Roberts cut off his dreadlocks after he learned that the police were looking for him. Then, in October 2014, when two police officers were searching at night for a suspect in an unrelated crime, one officer shined a flashlight on Roberts, who was walking along the side of a road. He ran into some nearby woods, and the officers chased him and commanded him to stop. After chasing Roberts for about 100 yards, the officers found Roberts hiding in a large drainage pipe.

2. Roberts contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions because no physical evidence placed him at the car; surveillance video that was admitted into evidence did not clearly depict the shooter; and there were a number of reasons to doubt the **259reliability of the two eyewitnesses who identified Roberts as the shooter.

When evaluating a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we view all of the evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the verdict and ask whether any rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which he was convicted. See *330Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307, 318-319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Our review leaves to the jury the resolution of conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence, credibility of witnesses, and reasonable inferences to be made from the evidence. See id. ; Menzies v. State , 304 Ga. 156, 160, 816 S.E.2d 638 (2018). " 'As long as there is some competent evidence, even though contradicted, to support each fact necessary to make out the State's case, the jury's verdict will be upheld.' " Williams v. State , 287 Ga. 199, 200, 695 S.E.2d 246 (2010) (citation omitted). Moreover, "the State was not required to produce any physical evidence," video or otherwise, "and it was for the jury to determine the credibility of the eyewitnesses." Jackson v. State , 301 Ga. 866, 867, 804 S.E.2d 367 (2017). After reviewing the record of Roberts's trial, we conclude that the evidence presented against him, as summarized in Division 1, was sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Roberts was guilty of the crimes of which he was convicted. See Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. at 318-319, 99 S.Ct. 2781.

3. Roberts also contends that the trial court abused its discretion when it refused to admit evidence of a dice game under OCGA § 24-4-404 (b) ("Rule 404 (b)"). Specifically, Roberts sought to admit evidence under Rule 404 (b) that-at an illicit dice game around the block from the nightclub a week before King's murder-King, Roberts, and others who frequented the area were present, there was a heated argument, and King pulled a gun on one of the participants other than Roberts. Roberts argued that this evidence, together with the fact that thousands of dollars in cash changed hands during the dice game, was admissible as proof that a third person had as much motive to kill King as Roberts had. The trial court ruled that Rule 404 (b) was not applicable and that testimony that King pointed a gun at someone a week before his own murder "is simply not relevant." We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by excluding the testimony Roberts sought to admit.2

**260Under Rule 404 (b), " '(e)vidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts shall not be admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith,' but such evidence is admissible for other purposes, including to prove intent and motive." Kirby v. State , 304 Ga. 472

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824 S.E.2d 326, 305 Ga. 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roberts-v-state-ga-2019.