Woolfolk v. State

644 S.E.2d 828, 282 Ga. 139, 2007 Fulton County D. Rep. 1483, 2007 Ga. LEXIS 359
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMay 14, 2007
DocketS07A0127
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 644 S.E.2d 828 (Woolfolk 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
Woolfolk v. State, 644 S.E.2d 828, 282 Ga. 139, 2007 Fulton County D. Rep. 1483, 2007 Ga. LEXIS 359 (Ga. 2007).

Opinions

Melton, Justice.

Michael Jerome Woolfolk, Jr. appeals his convictions for the felony murder and aggravated assault of Jakesha Young.1 Woolfolk’s case arises from the same set of facts considered in Stinchcomb v. State, 280 Ga. 170 (626 SE2d 88) (2006), where we affirmed the conviction of Woolfolk’s co-defendant, Mario Stinchcomb. There we set forth the relevant facts as follows:

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the record shows that Jakesha Young was working as a prostitute in Fulton County. On November 6, 2002, she was called to a second-floor apartment by Stinchcomb. Michael Woolfolk, Max Stevens, and Randy Harris were also at the apartment. Shortly after Young arrived, she and Stinchcomb began to argue over the value of her services. Thereafter, Stinchcomb refused Young’s request for money, and instructed her to leave. Angered, Young left the apartment and retrieved a gun from her car as Stinchcomb and Harris watched from the outside stairwell. Young then fired a shot in the air above the onlookers’ heads. At that moment, Stinchcomb ran back to the upstairs apartment to get his gun. During this time, Young got into her car and began to drive away. When Stinchcomb reentered the apartment, he and Woolfolk began firing their guns at Young from the window. Woolfolk fired once before his gun jammed, and Stinchcomb fired three times. A bullet from Woolfolk’s gun hit Young in the head and killed her while she was seated inside the car.

Id. at 171 (1).

1. Based on these facts, the jury was authorized to find Woolfolk guilty of the crimes for which he was convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

[140]*140Woolfolk nonetheless contends that his conviction for the felony murder of Young cannot stand, arguing that the evidence demanded a finding that he acted in self-defense. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, however, the evidence shows that Young was shot in the head after the confrontation had ended, she had retreated to her car, and was being driven away.

Therefore, by the time that Woolfolk and Stinchcomb began shooting, there was no longer an imminent threat to them justifying the use of deadly force, and the jury did not err by rejecting [Woolfolk’s] arguments that his actions were justified pursuant to the doctrine of self-defense. Broussard v. State, 276 Ga. 216 (2) (576 SE2d 883) (2003).

Stinchcomb, supra, 280 Ga. at 172 (1).

2. Woolfolk contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion to sever the count of aggravated assault against a peace officer from all remaining counts regarding the crimes committed against Young, maintaining that the crimes are wholly unconnected and dissimilar. This argument is misplaced.

The record shows that, after receiving a tip, a police officer located Woolfolk on the day after the murder, approached Woolfolk, identified himself as a police officer, and attempted to ask Woolfolk about the crime against Young. Woolfolk immediately fled, and as he did so, he pulled out the same gun he had used to murder Young. After the police officer fired at him, Woolfolk then attempted to throw away the gun as he continued to flee. “This Court has upheld joinder of two crimes when one crime is a circumstance of the arrest on the other crime.” (Footnote omitted.) Williams v. State, 277 Ga. 368, 369 (3) (589 SE2d 563) (2003). Therefore, because Woolfolk’s alleged crime of aggravated assault against a police officer was a circumstance of his arrest for the crimes against Young and directly related to that crime, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying Woolfolk’s motion to sever these offenses under the facts of this case. Id. Moreover, evidence of Woolfolk’s flight2 and his possession and use of the handgun employed to murder Young would be admissible as evidence relating to the underlying murder, and “where the evidence of one crime would be admissible in the trial of the other crime, it cannot be said that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the [141]*141motion for severance.” (Punctuation omitted.) Johnson v. State, 257 Ga. 731, 733 (2) (c) (363 SE2d 540) (1988).

Arguing that the trial court erred by denying the motion to sever, the dissent misapplies the standard set forth in Benford v. State, 272 Ga. 348 (528 SE2d 795) (2000). In Benford, we found that, where the defendant was on trial for murder, the trial court erred by admitting evidence that, at the time of his arrest over a month after the crime, the defendant possessed a weapon not used to kill the victim. To support this holding, we stated:

[T]his Court has indicated that the admission of evidence which shows the commission of another crime may not automatically be admitted solely on the basis that the evidence was incident to an accused’s arrest where the evidence is wholly unrelated to the charged crime, the arrest is remote in time from the charged crime, and the evidence is not otherwise shown to be relevant.

(Emphasis supplied.) Id. at 350 (3). Benford addressed only the admission of evidence of another crime where that evidence is “wholly unrelated” to the charged crime for which the defendant is being prosecuted. It is well established that evidence of flight is related to the underlying offense, see, e.g., Hogans, supra, and it also cannot be maintained that subsequent possession and use of the murder weapon has no relevance to the underlying murder. Therefore, Benford addresses a circumstance not present here and simply has no application to this case. It did not involve the joinder or severance of crimes in any fashion, and it certainly provides no basis for finding that the trial court erred in this case by refusing to sever the wholly related charge that, while being arrested within 24 hours for Young’s murder, Woolfolk fled while in possession of the exact gun used to commit the murder and used that gun to commit aggravated assault on a pursuing police officer.

3. Woolfolk argues that the trial court erred by failing to find that the State improperly used its peremptory strikes against two African-American potential jurors, thereby violating the rules against racial discrimination set forth in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (106 SC 1712, 90 LE2d 69) (1986). In order to show a Batson violation, a defendant must prove that the State purposefully engaged in racial discrimination through its use of peremptory strikes. Floyd v. State, 272 Ga. 65 (3) (525 SE2d 683) (2000). On appeal, great deference must be extended to a trial court’s determination that no Batson violation has occurred. Id. Following a defendant’s showing of a prima facie case of racial discrimination, the reasons provided by the State to overcome any such presumption of racial discrimination must be [142]*142“concrete, tangible, race-neutral, and neutrally applied.” Ford v. State, 262 Ga. 558, 560 (3) (423 SE2d 245) (1992). See also Purkett v. Elem, 514 U. S. 765 (115 SC 1769, 131 LE2d 834) (1995). In some cases, however, “[a] trial court may . . .

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
644 S.E.2d 828, 282 Ga. 139, 2007 Fulton County D. Rep. 1483, 2007 Ga. LEXIS 359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woolfolk-v-state-ga-2007.