Abraha v. State
| Decision Date | 06 July 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. S99A0322.,S99A0322. |
| Parties | ABRAHA v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Gayle D. Bacon, Decatur, for appellant.
J. Tom Morgan, District Attorney, Barbara B. Conroy, Robert M. Coker, Assistant District Attorneys, Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Daniel G. Ashburn, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Arega Abraha was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of malice murder and felony murder while in the commission of aggravated assault for the fatal shooting of his cousin, Aster Haile. Abraha appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence of his guilt, the refusal to suppress the results of an executed search warrant for his automobile, and the admission into evidence of certain of the victim's statements. Finding the challenges to be without merit, we affirm.1
The evidence construed in favor of the verdicts showed that on January 14, 1997, between 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., a motorist found Aster Haile's body on the side of State Highway 78 near the Memorial Drive exit in DeKalb County. Haile was dead as the result of a contact gunshot wound to the middle of her forehead. The motorist who discovered Haile had left a stranded vehicle at the spot between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. that evening and had seen no sign of the woman's body at that time. When the medical examiner's forensic investigator arrived at the scene, Haile's body was still warm and its appearance was consistent with Haile having been alive at the time the motorist's vehicle broke down.
Haile and Abraha were both from Ethiopia and Haile came to the United States as the result of Abraha's assistance; a pretextual marriage for Haile was arranged with an Ethiopian friend of Abraha's who had American citizenship. Although Abraha and Haile were cousins, he called her his "sister" and she referred to him as her "brother." Once in the United States, Haile quickly ended the sham marriage, and she became roommates with a man she had met in a refugee camp in Kenya. Haile's former husband made demands on Haile and Abraha to return certain monies and jewelry he had apparently given in the marriage. This upset and angered Abraha. Also, Haile's fraudulent marriage resulted in the termination of her conditional residency status in December 1995. Haile feared deportation; she also feared Abraha. Haile told her friend and neighbor Gebrewid that she was afraid that if Abraha knew she had some money in savings, he would kill her.
At the end of December 1996, Abraha borrowed a handgun from his friend Farrah, telling him that he needed it for protection on a camping trip.
In January 1997, Abraha arranged for Haile to meet a prospective husband. Haile told Gebrewid, and another friend, Hussein, about the prospect, and on Saturday, January 11, 1997, Haile and a friend went shopping for suitable clothes for Haile to wear for the meeting with the man. Haile related what she had been told by Abraha, that the man, who was an American citizen, was a little older, religious, and financially secure. Haile met with Abraha and the man the next day, Sunday, January 12, 1997. After the meeting, Haile told her friends that the man was Caucasian, rich, and very old compared to her, and that she did not want to marry him but felt that she had no other choice.
On the morning of January 14, 1997, Haile went to her housekeeping job. After returning home around 11:00 a.m., Haile told Gebrewid that she had just spoken with Abraha and they were going to meet with the potential suitor for lunch about 1:00 p.m. Haile then left, stating that Abraha was coming to pick her up on Buford Highway. Gebrewid last saw Haile walking toward Buford Highway at approximately 12:30 p.m. Evidence showed that a telephone call was placed from Haile's apartment to Abraha's residence at 12:15 p.m. Haile's body was found in the same clothes she was wearing when last seen leaving her apartment at 12:30 p.m.
On January 15, 1997, Abraha returned the borrowed gun to Farrah. Also, that day Abraha took his body damaged car to a repair shop, insisting that he leave the vehicle. But the owner refused, and Abraha returned with the car the next day, January 16. Abraha seemed nervous and talked to the owner about selling his car.
Also on January 16, the police told Abraha about Haile's death; Abraha displayed no reaction to the news or any curiosity about the circumstances. He agreed to be interviewed by police. Abraha claimed not to have seen Haile on January 14, 1997, and stated that on that day he was running and later visited an athletic club in the evening, returning home between 8:50 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. However, the athletic club's records reflected that Abraha was present only on the morning of January 14 at 9:45 a.m. Police obtained a warrant to search Abraha's car, and even though it appeared that there had been an attempt to clean the vehicle, traces of Haile's blood was found throughout. Marijuana was also discovered in the car. After learning of Haile's death, Farrah turned over to police the gun he loaned to Abraha. Haile's blood was found on the gun, and the bullet removed from her brain was determined to have been fired from the weapon.
Police obtained a warrant for Abraha's arrest, but he fled the state. Abraha was apprehended on a fugitive warrant on January 24, 1997 at an airport in Kentucky. He was found with $34,000 in cash, an airline ticket which would have taken him next to Chicago, and receipts indicating that he had made $32,500 in cash advances on his credit cards.
1. Abraha contends that the trial court erred in refusing to grant his motion to suppress the evidence obtained from the search of his car because the issuing magistrate lacked probable cause for the warrant. See OCGA § 17-5-21(a). But that is not the case.
DeYoung v. State, 268 Ga. 780, 787(7), 493 S.E.2d 157 (1997), quoting State v. Stephens, 252 Ga. 181, 182, 311 S.E.2d 823 (1984). The trial court will then examine the issue, and its factual findings regarding probable cause for issuance of the warrant will be upheld unless clearly erroneous. Bryant v. State, 268 Ga. 616, 618(6), 491 S.E.2d 320 (1997); Williams v. State, 267 Ga. 771(4), 482 S.E.2d 288 (1997). Ultimately, this Court's role on review is to "determine if the magistrate had a `substantial basis' for concluding that probable cause existed to issue the search [warrant]."2DeYoung at 787(7), 493 S.E.2d 157. See also Grier v. State, 266 Ga. 170, 172(2)(b), 465 S.E.2d 655 (1996). And a reviewing court is to give substantial deference to the magistrate's decision to issue a search warrant after finding probable cause. Id.
Here, there was a substantial basis for finding the existence of probable cause. The police searched Haile's apartment. The detective who obtained the warrant interviewed Haile's roommates, friends, neighbors, and one of her employers and learned that on the day in question Haile was to meet with Abraha shortly after she was last seen. The interviewees spoke of Abraha as Haile's brother. The detective then interviewed Abraha, who volunteered that his car was in the body shop. Abraha also denied that he had seen Haile on January 14.
The detective's affidavit in support of the warrant for Abraha's car, which was made on January 16, 1997, recited that: On January 14, 1997, DeKalb County police were called to investigate a body found on the Highway 78 connector to Memorial Drive; the police found the body of an unidentified female, laying just off the roadway on the west bound lane side; she had sustained a gunshot wound to the head and it appeared as though the body had been dumped at the location; on January 15, the body was positively identified as Haile; detectives learned through interviews with her employer that Haile was scheduled to meet with Haile's brother, Abraha, to take...
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