Valentine v. State

748 S.E.2d 437, 293 Ga. 533, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 2832, 2013 WL 4779569, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 644
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 9, 2013
DocketS13A0902
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 748 S.E.2d 437 (Valentine 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
Valentine v. State, 748 S.E.2d 437, 293 Ga. 533, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 2832, 2013 WL 4779569, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 644 (Ga. 2013).

Opinion

Blackwell, Justice.

William Thomas Valentine, Jr., was tried by an Athens-Clarke County jury and convicted of murder and kidnapping. Following the denial of his motion for new trial, Valentine appeals, contending that [534]*534the trial court did not give his lawyer enough time to prepare for the testimony of an expert witness and that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel. Upon our review of the briefs and record, we see no error, and we affirm.1

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence shows that Valentine spent the evening of October 9,2010 with Alfred Harris and Judith Ann Miracle in Harris’s apartment, where they smoked crack cocaine and drank alcohol. Late in the evening, Miracle went to a bedroom to sleep, leaving Harris and Valentine in the living room. Miracle later awoke, started toward the bathroom, and encountered Valentine, who told her to stay in the bedroom and not to try to leave through a window. She returned to the bedroom, where she was visited several times thereafter by Valentine, who reminded her not to leave, and threatened to kill her if she did so. At some point, Valentine allowed Miracle to visit the bathroom, at which time she saw that the cover of the toilet tank was missing. Early in the morning of October 10, Valentine ordered Miracle to get dressed, took her cell phone, grabbed her by the arm, and forced her to leave the apartment with him. As they left the apartment, Miracle saw blood on the floor of the kitchen. Valentine and Miracle walked away from the apartment for about ten minutes, and during that time, Valentine warned Miracle not to run or say anything. Finally, Valentine took Miracle to his sister’s home. Valentine then went to his girlfriend’s house, where he showered and burned the clothes and boots that he had been wearing.

Also on the morning of October 10, a friend found Harris’s body on a sofa in the apartment. Harris had died as a result of severe head trauma, which apparently was caused by at least three blows to his head with a blunt object. Investigators discovered the cover of the toilet tank in a bathtub, and on the cover, they found Harris’s blood. [535]*535They also found. Harris’s blood elsewhere in the apartment, as well as Valentine’s blood on a sheet in a bedroom. There were no signs of a struggle or fight in the apartment.

After Harris was killed, Valentine made incriminating statements and acted in a way that indicated a consciousness of guilt. For instance, Valentine made separate statements to his cousin and his sister indicating that he was in serious trouble. He told his sister, her husband, and his girlfriend that he thought that he had killed someone. He appeared at his sister’s house with a packed duffel bag and said that he had killed someone and would be going away for a long time. And when a neighbor asked Valentine if he had killed Harris and said that she intended to call the police, Valentine fled. In all, the evidence adduced at trial was legally sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Valentine was guilty of the crimes of which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307, 319 (III) (B) (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). See also Scott v. State, 290 Ga. 883, 884 (1) (725 SE2d 305) (2012).

2. The State called an expert witness at trial to testify about blood spatter found at the scene of the crime. This expert apparently had given an oral report of his opinions to the prosecuting attorney before the trial commenced, but the State failed to reduce that oral report to writing and to produce it to Valentine, as required by OCGA § 17-16-4 (a) (4).2 See Heywood v. State, 292 Ga. 771, 777 (4) (b) (743 SE2d 12) (2013) (under OCGA § 17-16-4 (a) (4), “if [an expert] made even an oral report of his opinions regarding the blood spatter evidence before trial, the prosecutor was required to prepare a written report of the opinion and its basis and to serve the report on [the defendant’s] counsel no later than ten days before trial”). For that reason, the trial court postponed the testimony of the expert until late in the trial, and it gave Valentine’s lawyer an opportunity to interview the expert before he testified, a remedy for which the discovery statutes expressly provide. See OCGA § 17-16-6 (“If at any time during the course of the proceedings it is brought to the attention of the court that the state has failed to comply with the requirements of this article, the court may order the state to permit the... interview of the witness____”). See also Norris v. State, 289 Ga. 154, 156 (2) (709 SE2d 792) (2011) (“It is usually a sufficient remedy for the defense to be afforded an opportunity to interview the witness.” (citation and punctuation omitted)).

[536]*536On appeal, Valentine complains that the postponement of the testimony of this expert witness was not long enough to afford his lawyer a sufficient opportunity to prepare for the witness. But at trial, Valentine never asked for more time. Instead, Valentine simply urged the trial court to disallow the expert witness altogether. That remedy, however, was foreclosed by the finding of the trial court that the State had not acted in bad faith, see OCGA § 17-16-6,3 a finding that Valentine does not dispute on appeal. By failing to ask for more time to prepare for the testimony of the expert witness, Valentine waived any claim of error with respect to the failure of the trial court to give his lawyer more time.4 See Moss v. State, 275 Ga. 96, 100-101 (7) (561 SE2d 382) (2002) (appellants waived claim that trial court erred by failing to grant continuance as a remedy for discovery violations because appellants failed to request a continuance).

3. Last, we consider whether Valentine was denied the effective assistance of counsel. Valentine complains that his lawyer was ineffective because he failed to secure a psychological evaluation of Valentine.5 To prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance, Valentine must prove both that the performance of his lawyer was deficient and that he was prejudiced by this deficient performance. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 687 (III) (104 SCt 2052, 80 LE2d 674) (1984). To prove that the performance of his lawyer was deficient, Valentine must show that the lawyer performed his duties at trial in an objectively unreasonable way, considering all the circumstances, and in the light of prevailing professional norms. Id. at 687-688 (III) (A). See also Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U. S. 365, 381 (II) (C) (106 SCt 2574, 91 LE2d 305) (1986). And to prove that he was prejudiced by the performance of his lawyer, Valentine must show “a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of [537]*537the proceeding would have been different. Areasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bruce Mitchell v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2026
Kalone Antoine Wilson v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2024
Harris v. State
872 S.E.2d 732 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2022)
Shelton v. State
869 S.E.2d 377 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2022)
Terrance Scriven v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2021
Santana v. State
842 S.E.2d 14 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2020)
LOVE v. the STATE.
824 S.E.2d 745 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2019)
Scott v. State
802 S.E.2d 211 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2017)
Howard v. State
782 S.E.2d 255 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2016)
Freeman v. the State
760 S.E.2d 708 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014)
State of Iowa v. Cortrail Andre Harris
Court of Appeals of Iowa, 2014
Euresio Sorrells v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014
Sorrells v. State
755 S.E.2d 586 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014)
Ivan Dale Miller v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014
Miller v. State
754 S.E.2d 804 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014)
Bester v. State
751 S.E.2d 360 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
748 S.E.2d 437, 293 Ga. 533, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 2832, 2013 WL 4779569, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 644, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/valentine-v-state-ga-2013.