Woods v. State

CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 3, 2026
DocketS25A1088
StatusPublished

This text of Woods v. State (Woods 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
Woods v. State, (Ga. 2026).

Opinion

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and official text of the opinion.

In the Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided: March 3, 2026

S25A1088. WOODS v. THE STATE.

ELLINGTON, Justice.

Maleik Woods appeals his convictions for malice murder and

possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in

connection with the shooting death of Francisco Dwayne Zapata.1

Woods asserts as his first claim of error on appeal that the trial court

1 Zapata was shot and killed on November 5, 2018, and on January 15,

2019, a DeKalb County grand jury indicted Woods in connection with the shooting on charges of malice murder (Count 1); felony murder based on armed robbery (Count 2); felony murder based on aggravated assault (Count 3); armed robbery (Count 4); aggravated assault (Count 5); and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (Count 6). Following a jury trial in November 2019, the jury acquitted Woods on Counts 2 and 4, but found him guilty on the remaining counts. The trial court sentenced Woods to life in prison with the possibility of parole on Count 1 and five years to serve on Count 6, to run consecutively to Count 1. The remaining counts were either vacated or merged. Woods filed a timely motion for new trial, which was twice amended by new counsel, on January 4, 2021, and November 11, 2024. The trial court denied the motion on December 23, 2024, and Woods filed a timely notice of appeal. The case was docketed to the August 2025 term of this Court and submitted for a decision on the briefs. abused its discretion in admitting, over objection, evidence of other

acts pursuant to OCGA § 24-4-404(b). Woods also argues that the

trial court committed plain error when it “coerced the deadlocked

jurors into reaching a unanimous verdict.” And Woods contends that

the combined effect of these two errors requires that his convictions

and sentences be reversed. Seeing no merit to these arguments, we

affirm.

Zapata 2 and Woods were friends , and on November 5, 2018,

the two were seen together several times at their mutual friend

Isaac Summage’s house in Gwinnett County. Summage testified

that Woods was unemployed at the time and had been sleeping on

Summage’s couch the previous three nights. Zapata’s girlfriend saw

them there at around 11:30 a.m. when they were sitting in Zapata’s

burgundy Kia in Summage’s driveway. The girlfriend noticed that

Woods, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was wearing

2 Although the trial transcript identifies the victim in this case as “Francisco Simpata,” the indictment, the trial court’s order on the motion for new trial, and other record documents identify the victim as “Francisco Zapata,” and we refer to him accordingly. 2 black pants and a yellow hoodie. While the two were at Summage’s

house that morning, Summage saw Zapata counting $1,500 in cash

in Woods’s presence. Zapata did not have a bank account and was

known for carrying cash in his wallet. Zapata and Woods left

Summage’s house around noon in Zapata’s Kia and returned around

4:00 or 5:00 p.m. They stayed for around one-half hour and left again

but returned “for a brief moment” after Summage called Zapata and

arranged “to get some weed.”3 Zapata and Woods then left

Summage’s house together in Zapata’s Kia about 7:00 p.m.

Sometime between 7:30 and 7:35 p.m. that evening, as Shakita

White turned into the DeKalb County apartment complex where she

lived, she noticed a burgundy Kia backed into a parking space, with

two people inside. White testified that the person in the driver’s seat

looked like a white female, and the evidence at trial showed that

Zapata had lighter-colored skin and “long hair, a little bit below his

shoulder,” which he always “wore back in like a messy bun.” White

3 The evidence showed that in late 2018, Zapata, who was employed full-

time, was earning extra money by selling marijuana. 3 said the person in the passenger seat was wearing a yellow hoodie.

That same evening, Steven Holland, another apartment

complex resident, was sitting in his car in the complex parking lot,

listening to music, when he “heard a pop” that “sounded like a

gunshot.” Holland went inside his apartment for a time and then

returned to his car and drove toward the complex’s exit. As Holland

was driving toward the exit, he saw a car backed into a parking

space with the driver’s door open and what appeared to be a bag of

clothes on the ground. However, when he drove by the car, Holland

looked closer and saw that there was a body beside the car, with the

legs still in the vehicle and the rest of the body on the ground.

Holland then called 911, parked, and waited for police to arrive. The

evidence showed that Holland’s 911 call was placed at 7:58 p.m. on

November 5, 2018, which Holland said was “[p]robably about 15

minutes” after he heard the “pop.”

Sheila Nesbit, another resident of the complex, testified that

she was inside her apartment when she heard a “loud noise” outside,

followed about 30 seconds later by the same noise again. Nesbit went

4 outside on her deck to see where the noise was coming from, and

about ten minutes later, she saw police lights coming into the

complex. She then observed a police officer go to a car that was

backed into a parking space. Nesbit said that about ten minutes

before she heard the loud noise, she happened to look out her

window and noticed that car in the parking lot. It stood out to her

because it was not a car that usually parked there.

When the first police officer arrived on the scene, at 8:04 p.m.,

Holland was waiting in his vehicle and directed the officer to a

burgundy Kia. The officer approached the vehicle and observed a

person lying on the ground, with one leg still in the vehicle through

the open driver’s side door. The officer first reported that the victim

was female, but upon closer inspection he realized the victim was

male. The officer determined that the man had been shot, but the

body was still warm, and the officer thought he detected a light

pulse. He began performing chest compressions until emergency

medical help arrived and moved the victim. When the lead detective

arrived sometime later, emergency medical personnel were on the

5 scene and had determined that the man, later identified as Zapata,

was dead.

Investigators later determined that the apartment complex

was about a 26-minute to one-hour drive from Summage’s house,

depending on traffic. A subsequent analysis of cell phone records

from Woods’s phone showed that on the night of the shooting it was

utilizing a cell tower located within approximately two miles of the

apartment complex between 7:38 and 7:41 p.m. Officers also

retrieved a photo from Woods’s cell phone showing Woods in a yellow

hoodie. A video retrieved from Summage’s cell phone also showed

Woods wearing a yellow hoodie.

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