Mize v. State
| Citation | 269 Ga. 646,501 S.E.2d 219 |
| Decision Date | 15 June 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. S98P0476.,S98P0476. |
| Parties | MIZE v. The STATE. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Georgia |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Palmer Christie Singleton, III, Atlanta, for William Mark Mize.
Harry N. Gordon, Dist. Atty. Gerald W. Brown, Asst. Dist. Atty., Athens, Hon. Thurbert E. Baker, Atty. Gen., Patricia Beth Attaway, Asst. Atty. Gen., Susan V. Boleyn, Senior Asst. Atty. Gen., Department of Law, Atlanta, for the State.
Joseph L. Chambers, Sr., Prosecuting Attorneys Counsel, Smyrna, Stephen C. Bayliss, Georgia Resource Center, Michael MultiCounty Public Defender, Atlanta, for other interested parties. BENHAM, Chief Justice.
A jury convicted William Mark Mize of malice murder in the shooting death of Eddie Tucker. The jury recommended a death sentence after finding two statutory aggravating circumstances: 1) that Mize caused or directed another to commit the murder and 2) that the murder was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved an aggravated battery to the victim. OCGA §§ 17-10-30(b)(6), (7).1 We affirm.
Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence adduced at trial showed that Mize was the leader of a small group, similar to the Ku Klux Klan, called the National Vastilian Aryan Party (NVAP). Witnesses testified that Mize made all the decisions for the NVAP. Several witnesses also testified that Mize displayed a single-shot 12-gauge shotgun at an NVAP meeting and told the members that the shotgun was the kind of weapon that the group would use because it could not be traced. Several of Mize's friends and co-workers were members of the NVAP, or in the initiation process. Eddie Tucker, the victim, had filled out an application form but was not a full member.
On Saturday, October 15, 1994, several NVAP members and applicants gathered at Mize's home after Mize got off from work. Those present were Mize, Mark Allen, Chris Hattrup, Brian Dove, Samantha Doster (Mize's girlfriend), and Tucker. Mize told Doster that the group was going camping that night and they all got in Mize's car. When they were driving, Mize told the group that there was a crack house in Athens that he wanted "gotten rid of." Mize stated that he wanted Hattrup and Tucker to set the house on fire, and they stopped at a convenience store and bought a can of lighter fluid. Hattrup and Tucker were dropped off near the house but their attempt to set it on fire was unsuccessful. When they rejoined the group, Hattrup told Mize that he needed to talk with him. Hattrup also said, referring to Tucker, that they "didn't need anybody around that couldn't follow orders."
After spending an hour at a bar, Mize drove the group to a wooded area in Oconee County. Dove and Doster were given camping gear to carry and the group set out into the woods. No one had a flashlight even though it was night. Tucker was in the lead, followed by Mize, Allen, Doster, Dove and Hattrup. After they had gone only a short distance, Hattrup passed Dove and Doster and moved up the trail to talk with Allen and Mize. Mize told Allen to stop Dove and Doster from continuing into the woods. At this point, Tucker, Hattrup and Mize were out of sight in the woods ahead of Allen, Dove and Doster. There was a shot, and Tucker exclaimed, "My God, what did you do that for?" There was a second shot. Doster heard Hattrup ask Mize if he had the gun and Mize replied, Hattrup stated, and Mize said, "If you can't finish it I can." Allen left Dove and Doster and moved up the trail. Dove and Doster heard a discussion among Mize, Allen, and Hattrup about muscle spasms and how Tucker was still moving. There was a third shot.
Dove and Doster ran back to Mize's car. Mize emerged from the woods holding a shotgun and trying to break it down. Once in the car, Mize asked everyone if they knew why it was done. Everyone nodded agreement. Mize told the group that the same thing could happen to them if they ran their mouth. Mize also told the group that, if asked about Tucker, they should say that they had dropped him off at a convenience store. While they were driving, Allen and Hattrup noticed that the barrel of the shotgun had shattered so they stopped at a bridge and threw the gun in a river. Later, Mize confided to Doster that he had finished Tucker off by shooting him in the head.
The police discovered Tucker's body several days later. He had been shot in the back, chest and head with a shotgun. The medical examiner testified that the back and chest wounds were inflicted by a shotgun fired at close range. The victim's head exhibited widely scattered pellet wounds that failed to penetrate the skull; the head wounds were consistent with a close-range shotgun blast that had shattered the barrel. The medical examiner further testified that the shots to the back and chest tore through the victim's right lung, but that none of the wounds were immediately fatal. The victim's death was due to blood loss, and it could have taken him several minutes to die. A fragment of the shotgun barrel was discovered about two feet from the body's location; the gun was not recovered.
After the body was discovered but before anyone was arrested, Chris Hattrup showed his roommate, Paul McDonald, the newspaper article about Tucker's death and told him what had happened. When the crack house failed to burn, Mize asked how Tucker had done and Hattrup responded that Tucker "didn't do what he was supposed to do." Mize then said, "you know what we have to do." Hattrup admitted to McDonald that he shot Tucker in the back and chest, but that Tucker was still alive. He was out of ammunition, though, so he asked Mize for another shotgun shell and Mize gave it to him. Hattrup then shot Tucker in the head. Hattrup also boasted to McDonald that he was now a "hit man for the Klan."
Brian Dove told the police what he had seen and heard that night, and he later testified at Mize's trial. The other four NVAP members involved in Tucker's death were arrested. After spending a year in jail, Doster agreed to testify against the others and her charges were dropped.
1. The evidence summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find Mize guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Contrary to Mize's assertion, there is evidence that he fired at least one of the shots. Even assuming that Mize did not fire any of the shots, there is sufficient evidence that he intentionally aided or abetted the commission of the murder, or that he intentionally advised, encouraged, or procured another to commit the murder. OCGA §§ 16-2-20(b)(3), (4); Chapman v. State, 263 Ga. 393, 435 S.E.2d 202 (1993); Gambrel v. State, 260 Ga. 197, 391 S.E.2d 406 (1990).
2. Mize claims that the State withheld exculpatory information in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). Specifically, he asserts that the State had written notes from a pre-trial interview with Samantha Doster that contained exculpatory information not revealed to the defense, and that the State withheld the identity of a GBI intern who could have provided exculpatory information. Both contentions are without merit. First, the notes from the interview with Doster were not exculpatory. The notes were created after Doster agreed to testify for the State: a prosecutor spoke with her and jotted down about six pages of notes in bullet format. These notes contained the following information: Mize was the leader of the NVAP, Mize told Allen to stop Dove and Doster from going deeper into the woods, Mize returned to the car with the gun, Mize gave everyone a story to tell if anyone asked about Tucker, and Mize admitted to finishing off the victim. Mize claims that he could have impeached Doster with the notes because the notes imply that Mize fired the first two shots while Doster's trial testimony implied (based on the conversation between Hattrup and Mize in the woods) that Hattrup had fired the first two shots. In order to prevail on a Brady claim, Mize must show:
that the State possessed evidence favorable to the defendant; the defendant did not possess the evidence nor could he obtain it himself with any reasonable diligence; the prosecution suppressed the favorable evidence; and had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, a reasonable probability exists that the outcome of the proceeding would have been different.
Burgeson v. State, 267 Ga. 102(2), 475 S.E.2d 580 (1996). The notes were not favorable to the defense because they unequivocally stated that Mize participated in Tucker's murder. In addition, Mize claims that the notes revealed that Doster had used drugs on the night of the murder and that this information could have been used to impeach her recollection of events. The notes, however, only state that Doster had used drugs on some night prior to the night of the murder, and Doster readily admitted her past drug abuse at trial. We find no Brady error with regard to the State's notes of the interview with Samantha Doster.2
The second contention, that the State withheld the identity of a GBI intern, is also not a Brady violation. Mize claims that the State should have given Mize the intern's identity because the intern had information that was exculpatory. When the body was discovered, the GBI attempted to sweep the vicinity of the body with a metal detector, but a GBI agent testified that the batteries died before they could complete the job. The agent also testified that a GBI intern was operating the metal detector at the scene. A month after the murder, the GBI returned to the murder scene with another metal detector and recovered a shotgun barrel fragment within two feet of the body's former location. At the hearing on the motion for new trial, Mize introduced an affidavit from Kevin...
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