Willis v. State

728 S.E.2d 857, 316 Ga. App. 258, 12 Fulton County D. Rep. 2031, 2012 WL 2161379, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 529, 12 FCDR 2031
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJune 15, 2012
DocketA12A0354
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 728 S.E.2d 857 (Willis v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Willis v. State, 728 S.E.2d 857, 316 Ga. App. 258, 12 Fulton County D. Rep. 2031, 2012 WL 2161379, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 529, 12 FCDR 2031 (Ga. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

Adams, Judge.

Early Willis, Sr., appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion for new trial following his conviction by a jury of three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.1 We affirm for the reasons set forth below.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,2 the evidence at trial showed that on September 27, 2008, Early Willis began firing a shotgun at his grandnephew, Jacoby Jackson, in front of a house on Pearl Drive in East Macon. Jackson began running, and Willis followed in his truck, with his brother, Jerry, riding in the passenger seat. Willis stopped in front of a store and shot at Jackson again across Jeffersonville Road, a four-lane road in Bibb County. Apassing motorist saw Willis shooting and another man running away on foot, holding his side. Willis got back in his truck and drove to another nearby store. The motorist followed while calling 911 on his cell phone to report the incident.

At the store, Willis parked by another car, got out and began drinking what appeared to be moonshine, while his brother ran into the woods. As the sound of police sirens grew closer, Willis also ran into the woods. At some point, the motorist removed Willis’s keys from his truck. Willis returned, demanding his keys (which the motorist kept hidden), and retrieved the shotgun from the truck. At that point, the police arrived, and Willis again ran into the woods. Officers discovered him a short time later lying in the woods near a shotgun and placed him into custody. Police later discovered Willis’s fingerprint on the shotgun. One of the arresting officers testified that Willis smelled like he had been drinking. At trial, both the motorist and another witness identified Willis as the man who shot at Jackson at the store.

After Willis was released on bond after this incident, he went to the Jones County Sheriff’s Department on October 2, 2008 at the [259]*259request of Investigator Calvin Pitts, who had told Willis’s bondsman that he needed to talk to Willis about the shotgun seized at the time of Willis’s arrest. The gun previously had been reported as stolen in a Jones County burglary. When Willis arrived, Pitts and another officer, Kenny Gleaton, took him to an interview room, hut Pitts testified that Willis was not under arrest and in fact, Willis left immediately after he finished talking with Pitts. During their conversation, Willis told the officers that he had fired his shotgun at the house on Pearl Drive and again toward a tree at the store on September 27, 2008 because he was mad that Jackson had stolen his cell phone.3

Subsequently, on April 30,2009, Jackson’s mother, Regina Smith, went to her cousin’s house to check on a car the cousin was repairing. Willis was also there, and words were exchanged between the two after Willis accused Regina of “snitching” in connection with Jackson’s shooting. Regina walked away and began to call 911. Willis then charged at Regina, and her husband, Antonio Smith, intervened saying that Willis had already shot his son and he would not let him hurt his wife. Antonio and Willis began to fight, while Regina got into her car and began to drive away because she was frightened. After others had broken up the fight, Willis went to his car and got a handgun. When Antonio saw the handgun, he began to back off, but Willis began shooting at Antonio as he ran away, striking him in the head. Regina continued to drive away as her husband ran after her. When she later stopped to let her husband in the car, she stepped outside the car, and Willis began to shoot again. Regina jumped back in her car and drove to get help for Antonio. Willis and his wife followed them in his truck until the police intercepted them. The officers placed Willis under arrest and seized a gun from under the truck seat, where Willis told them they would find it.

The defense presented a number of witnesses who testified that Antonio Smith had started the fight on April 30, 2009, but each of them, including Willis’s wife, testified that Willis shot at Antonio after the fight had stopped and when Antonio was running away.

Willis also testified and stated that it was his brother who shot Jackson on September 27, 2008, and his brother threw the shotgun down near where the police found Willis. Although Willis admitted telling Pitts that he had shot the gun that day, he testified that he was just telling the officer what he wanted to hear and that his statement was a lie. With regard to the shooting on April 30, 2009, Willis said [260]*260that he got the gun after others had broken up the fight and when Antonio followed him to the truck and indicated that he was not through with him. When Willis got the gun, Antonio ran around the truck and Willis followed and “ran him in between the car[s].” He said that Antonio was injured when he fell and hit a tire stem. Willis said on direct examination that he emptied the gun into the ground at that point, but on cross-examination, he first said that he shot the gun into the air and then said that he shot into the ground. When presented with this contradiction, he stated that he shot the first shot in the air and the remaining three into the ground. But Willis said that he never shot Antonio and never shot at the Smiths’ car.

1. Willis asserts that this evidence was insufficient to support any of his convictions. In an appeal from a criminal conviction, this Court must

view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict [,] and an appellant no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence. This Court determines whether the evidence is sufficient under the standard of Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979), and does not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility. Any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence are for the jury to resolve. As long as there is some competent evidence, even though contradicted, to support each fact necessary to make out the State’s case, we must uphold the jury’s verdict.

(Citations omitted.) Rankin v. State, 278 Ga. 704, 705 (606 SE2d 269) (2004).

Willis asserts that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he shot at Jackson because he contends that the witnesses mistakenly identified him as the shooter, instead of his brother. Although Willis testified that his brother was the shooter, two witnesses, one who had never seen Willis before and one who had known him all his life, each identified Willis as the one who shot at Jackson at the store that day. Additionally, Jackson told police the day of the incident that Willis had fired the shotgun at him at the house and later at the store, and Willis admitted to the Jones County officers that he had fired the shotgun in both locations. We find, therefore, that the evidence was sufficient to support Willis’s conviction of the charges alleged in connection with the incident on September 27, 2008. See Armour v. State, 290 Ga. 553, 554 (1) (722 SE2d 751) (2012). See also Vega v. State, 285 Ga. 32, 33 (1) (673 SE2d 223) (2009) (“ It [261]*261was for the jury to determine the credibility of the witnesses and to resolve any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence.’ ”) (citation omitted).

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Bluebook (online)
728 S.E.2d 857, 316 Ga. App. 258, 12 Fulton County D. Rep. 2031, 2012 WL 2161379, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 529, 12 FCDR 2031, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/willis-v-state-gactapp-2012.