Sloans v. State

818 S.E.2d 596, 304 Ga. 363
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided August 27, 2018·No. S18A1138·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

Boggs, Justice.

**363Appellant Levaughn Sloans was tried before a jury and found guilty of murder, felony murder, criminal damage to property in the first degree, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime related to the death of Antonio President.1 He now appeals, asserting that the evidence was insufficient and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. We disagree on both grounds and affirm.

The record reveals that Stephen Smith drove to Sloans and Anthony Folston's apartment in order to satisfy a drug debt. While there, Smith overheard Folston tell Sloans, "[h]e's at the store, he's at the store right now, he's there right now, he's there right now, you need to go, you need to go handle it, straighten it right now." Smith **364saw Folston hand Sloans a silver revolver, and Sloans put on a black jacket before he left. *598Smith got back in his vehicle and drove to Sonny's Corner Package Shop, where he saw Sloans and Folston inside a green Cadillac near the store. Smith testified that Sloans jumped out of the car and ran to the side of the store. He then heard gunshots, but he did not turn around and instead "just kept on going." Bruce Benziger, who had purchased cocaine from Sloans on several occasions, was standing outside the convenience store when he "heard some shots." He "turned around and looked and [Sloans] was coming around the corner with a gun shooting off ... the other guy he done had hit was [the victim]." Another witness, Walter Jones III, testified that he was talking with the victim when a man wearing a hood came up to them and pulled out a chrome gun. Jones thought the gun was "aimed for [him]" so he turned around and ran, but then realized that the man "shot [the victim]." However, Jones was never able to identify the shooter.

At the time of the shooting, Taisha Wesley was pulling into the convenience store parking lot with her three children. One of the bullets knocked out her front tire. She drove off but returned later and told police what she had seen. A few days later, she identified Sloans as the shooter after being shown a photographic line-up. Wesley's son, who knew the victim, also identified Sloans as the shooter.

Investigators found a black hooded jacket in the area of the shooting. It was given to the GBI for DNA testing but was never tested. Police interviewed both Folston and Sloans and both admitted that they sold drugs from their apartment. Sloans denied shooting the victim but told police that the victim had robbed Folston months earlier. Police recorded a phone call between Sloans and Folston after their arrest. During the call, the two discussed the fact that police took .45 caliber rounds from their apartment, to which one of them responded "okay, we're straight." The projectile that killed the victim was a .38 caliber bullet.

1. Sloans argues that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions. When evaluating a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court views all of the evidence admitted at trial in the light most favorable to the verdicts and asks whether any rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which he was convicted. Hayes v. State, 292 Ga. 506, 739 S.E.2d 313 (2013).

Sloans asserts that the evidence was insufficient because there was no DNA evidence placing him at the scene, the testimony of the police officers was unreliable, and Smith's testimony was not credible because he was incarcerated at the time of his second statement to police and when he testified at Sloans' trial. However, "[o]ur limited **365review leaves to the jury the resolution of conflicts in the evidence, the weight of the evidence, the credibility of witnesses, and reasonable inferences to be made from basic facts to ultimate facts." (Citations and punctuation omitted.) McGruder v. State, 303 Ga. 588, 590 (II), 814 S.E.2d 293 (2018). Likewise, Sloans' argument concerning the lack of DNA evidence is also without merit. "Although the State is required to prove its case with competent evidence, there is no requirement that it prove its case with any particular sort of evidence." (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Jordan v. State, 303 Ga. 709, 711 (1), 814 S.E.2d 682 (2018).

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Sloans v. State, 818 S.E.2d 596, 304 Ga. 363 (Ga. 2018).

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