Morris v. State

• Decision Date: 20 April 2020
• Docket Number: S20A0176
• Parties: MORRIS v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

308 Ga. 520

842 S.E.2d 45

MORRIS

v.The STATE.

S20A0176

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: April 20, 2020

Crawford & Boyle, Eric C. Crawford, for Appellant.

Paul L. Howard, Jr., District Attorney, Lyndsey H. Rudder, Marc A. Mallon, Assistant District Attorneys; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Leslie A. Coots, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Bethel, Justice.

A Fulton County jury found Darius Morris guilty of malice murder and other offenses in connection with the shooting death of Jameson Bush.¹ Morris appeals, arguing that he was denied the right to a timely appeal, that the trial court erred in restricting voir dire as to the religious beliefs and connections of potential jurors, that the trial court erred by giving a confusing jury charge regarding statements of co-conspirators, that the trial court erred by violating his right to a public trial by ordering that the courtroom doors be closed and locked during the court's charge to the jury, and that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by not objecting to the closure of the courtroom. Finding no error, we affirm.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence presented at trial showed the following. In the early evening hours of August 8, 2007, Jameson Bush went to Adom Martin's room at a boarding house located at 825 Beckwith Street in Atlanta. The house is a duplex with both front and back entrances on the ground floor. The front entrance faces south onto Beckwith Street, and the back entrance opens to a lot that backs up to houses along Drummond Street, which runs parallel to Beckwith Street to the north.

Several other individuals, including David Handy, Robert Scott, and a man named Chris, were in Martin's room over the course of the evening. Handy and Martin were selling marijuana out of Martin's room. Several people in the room noticed that there was tension between Handy and Bush that evening. Upon Bush's arrival at Martin's room, Bush sat down, pulled out a "wad" of money, and counted it. Bush owed Handy $250 but refused to pay anything to him. After an argument between Bush and Handy, Handy went onto the front porch of the house. He received a phone call from Morris asking Handy for marijuana. Handy told Morris that he had some marijuana but that he had something else for Morris to do as well. Morris owed Handy $100. Handy told Morris that if he robbed Bush, that would satisfy Morris's debt to Handy.

In a series of phone calls, Handy and Morris discussed how to complete the robbery of Bush. Handy told Morris he would leave the back door of the boarding house open and would call Morris to tell him when he was leaving. Morris wanted to know when Handy was going to leave and how many people were in Martin's room. Handy told Morris he would leave the house and go to the gas station around the corner. When Handy left the house, he called Morris to let him know that it was time for him to go through the back door and get the money. Martin, Scott, Chris, and Bush were still in Martin's room when Handy left.

After Handy left the house, two armed men, who were later identified as Morris and Desmond Davis, pushed their way into Martin's room. Morris and Davis told everyone in the room to get on the ground. Morris and Davis were wearing masks and gloves. Davis had a rifle, and Morris had a handgun.

Morris and Davis flipped over the furniture in the room and made everyone in the room empty their pockets. Davis stood by with his gun while Morris searched the room. They took all the money and marijuana they found in the room and in everyone's pockets and kept asking about weapons and drugs. Morris and Davis also found Martin's gun in the room and took it.

Morris and Davis told those in the room that they were going to start shooting if Martin did not tell them where the rest of the drugs were located. Davis asked, "Who are we going to kill first?" Martin and Bush then began pleading with Morris and Davis not to shoot.

At that point, Bush stood up behind a chair and told Morris and Davis not to shoot him. Davis then suddenly shot Bush in the arm. Bush screamed, "He shot me, he shot me!" and fell to the ground. Morris and Davis then shot Bush eight more times. After the shots were fired, Morris and Davis dropped some of the money they were holding and ran out of the room and through the back door of the house. No one else in the room was shot.

Several people in the house called 911. When police officers responded to the 911 call, they found Bush in Martin's room. He was unresponsive. When the officers looked around the house, they found that the back door of the house was open, the mattresses in Martin's room were overturned, and the room appeared to have been "rummaged." Money was strewn across the floor of Martin's room and on the ground outside the back door of the house. Three metal bullet fragments and ten cartridge casings were found on the floor of the room, and police determined that at least ten rounds of ammunition had been fired inside the room. The cartridge cases that were recovered were for bullets commonly fired from AK or SKS rifles. No firearms were located at the scene, but each of the cartridges was determined to have been fired from the same rifle.

During an autopsy of Bush, the medical examiner also recovered from Bush's body a .38 caliber bullet that could have been fired from a .357 Magnum revolver and three "rifle-type bullets." Bush suffered eight gunshot wounds

. The medical examiner determined that the cause of death was gunshot wounds to Bush's head and torso and that the manner of death was homicide.

At the time of the crimes, Morris and Davis lived together in a house at 874 Drummond Street. Davis's girlfriend testified that about two weeks before Bush was shot, she saw a rifle and a .357 handgun at the house Morris and Davis shared. She did not see those guns again after Bush was shot.

The day after Bush was shot, Handy went to 874 Drummond Street to see Morris. Morris tried to give Handy some money, and Handy slapped it out of his hand. When Handy asked why Morris and Davis shot Bush, Morris said they shot him because he would not give them money. About a week later, Davis told his girlfriend that he and Morris shot Bush because Bush would not give them the money he was holding. Davis told his girlfriend that he shot Bush three times and that Morris shot Bush twice.

Frank Saleem testified that he saw Morris and Davis sitting in a car on a side street near 825 Beckwith on the evening of August 8, 2007, before the shooting occurred. About 20 minutes later, Saleem went to 825 Beckwith to buy marijuana. As he reached the front door of the house, Saleem heard commotion inside, followed by several gunshots. He then ran away from the house and up the street to the house of another neighbor named Dre. He told Dre that someone had been shot, and he and Dre came back to 825 Beckwith. While walking back to Beckwith Street, Saleem noticed that the car Morris and Davis had been sitting in earlier was gone. Saleem also testified that he saw a rifle and a handgun at Morris's and Davis's house on Drummond Street prior to Bush's shooting. Saleem testified that he never saw the guns again after August 2008.

Though not raised by Morris as error, in accordance with this Court's practice in appeals of murder cases, we have reviewed the record and find that the evidence, as summarized above, was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Morris guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which he was convicted. See Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). See also Brown v. State , 302 Ga. 454, 456 (1) (b), 807 S.E.2d 369 (2017) ("It was for the jury to determine the credibility of the witnesses and to resolve any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence." (citation and punctuation omitted)).

2. Morris argues that he was denied his right to a timely appeal due to the State's delay in filing a complete transcript of the proceedings in the case. He argues that this delay violated his right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. For the reasons that follow, we agree with the trial court that it did not.

Morris's trial counsel timely filed a motion for new trial on September 7, 2011. The court reporter, Cheryl Gilliam, prepared and submitted Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the five-part trial transcript on November, 14, 2013, over two years after Morris filed his motion. Volumes 1-3 included jury selection, opening statements, the State's presentation of evidence in the first part of the bifurcated trial, the State and defense resting, and the beginning of the charge conference. Volume 5 contained the conclusion of the sentencing hearing.²

Volume 4, which was not submitted by Gilliam at that time, ultimately contained the conclusion of the charge conference, closing arguments, the charge of the court, questions submitted to the court by the jury during its deliberations, the verdict, part of the sentencing hearing, and the second part of the bifurcated trial as to charges relating to Morris possessing a firearm by a convicted felon and the corresponding felony murder charge. Gilliam was not present on the day of trial covered by Volume 4. Instead, a substitute court reporter, Paulette Lester, was present in court that day.

The record reflects that Morris wrote seven letters to the superior court clerk between January 2012 and December 2015 requesting his transcript and case records while his motion for new trial remained pending. New appellate counsel for Morris was appointed on December 7, 2015, but apparently withdrew from representing Morris in early 2016. Morris's current appellate counsel was appointed in April 2016 and immediately began requesting the transcripts. All volumes except Volume 4 were provided. Only after Morris's...