Anderson v. State

• Decision Date: 06 June 2016
• Docket Number: S16A0190
• Citation: 299 Ga. 193,787 S.E.2d 202
• Parties: Anderson v. The State.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

299 Ga. 193

787 S.E.2d 202

Anderson

v.The State.

S16A0190

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: June 6, 2016

David Joseph Walker, Macon, for Appellant.

Gregory W. Edwards, District Attorney, Samuel S. Olens, Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, for Appellee.

Blackwell

, Justice.

Darrell Anderson was tried by a Dougherty County jury and convicted of felony murder and the unlawful possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the fatal shooting of Jack Camp. Anderson appeals, contending that the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions and that the trial court erred when it charged the jury about the unlawful possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. We find no error and affirm.¹

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence shows that, around 1:00 on the morning of March 14, 2007, Camp was shot and killed while working as a security guard at the Regency Club Apartments in Albany. Just before he was shot, Camp called 911 to ask for assistance with some “subjects,” and the dispatcher heard a male voice in the background say, “oh hell, he's calling the police.”

When law enforcement arrived at the apartment complex, a resident who had been walking through the complex at the time that Camp was shot provided a statement that identified Anderson, Dontavius Wilson (who was Anderson's cousin), Christopher Ingram, Luke Sears, and Kentrell Barney. When investigators interviewed Anderson, Wilson, and Ingram, they gave almost identical statements, all purporting to know nothing about the killing. Anderson added that he had “never ever” been to the Regency Club Apartments. Sears initially denied knowledge of the killing as well, and he provided an alibi for Anderson, Wilson, and Ingram. But after Sears was arrested for providing a false statement, he agreed to come clean.

Sears then gave a second statement to investigators, which was generally consistent with the testimony he provided at trial. Sears said that, at around 7:00 on the evening of March 13, he went to drink and smoke marijuana with Anderson, Wilson, Ingram, and Barney at the home of Wilson's girlfriend. At one point, Sears saw Ingram pull out a revolver, and he saw the other men “horsing around” with it. All five men then went to a trailer park, and they drank and smoked marijuana there until Wilson received a phone call. The men then went to the Regency Club Apartments in separate cars—with Sears and Barney riding with Wilson, and Ingram riding with Anderson—so that Anderson, Wilson, and Ingram could sell crack.

Sears testified that the men parked their cars by a ballfield near the apartment complex. After the other men walked away, Sears remained in Wilson's burgundy Impala and soon fell asleep. Sears claimed that he awoke to the sound of gunshots, and Wilson returned to the Impala and put down a revolver that looked like the one Sears had seen earlier that night. Sears said that—as the men started their separate cars—he jumped out of the Impala, saw Camp's body, and ran through the ballfield and the campus of Dougherty High School. When he saw Wilson drive up, he got back into the Impala, and Wilson told him, “[y]ou ain't seen nothing,” and “[y]ou don't know nothing.”

According to Sears, Wilson drove him back to the home of Wilson's girlfriend. When Anderson and Ingram arrived soon thereafter, Wilson approached them and handed Ingram what Sears thought was the revolver. Sears testified that he then heard Anderson say, “I told the n****** the man was going to call the police, and we just went to dumping.”² Sears testified that the men all went back to the trailer park, subsequently visited a Waffle House, and finally parted ways later in the morning.

On appeal, Anderson claims that his convictions cannot be sustained because the only evidence of his guilt came from Sears. Former OCGA § 24–4–8

provided that, in “felony cases where the only witness is an accomplice, the testimony of a single witness is not sufficient [to establish a fact]. Nevertheless, corroborating circumstances may dispense with the necessity for the testimony of a second witness, except in prosecutions for treason.”³ The evidence necessary to corroborate an accomplice's testimony under former OCGA § 24–4–8

“may be circumstantial, it may be slight, and it need not of itself be sufficient to warrant a conviction of the crime charged,” but it “must directly connect the defendant with the crime, or lead to the inference that he is guilty.” McKibbins v. State , 293 Ga. 843, 846, 750 S.E.2d 314 (2013) (citation omitted). Here, the trial court informed the jury about the requirements of former OCGA § 24–4–8, and the jury was properly instructed that it was for the jury to determine whether Sears was an accomplice. Even if the jury determined that Sears, in fact, was an accomplice, we find that Sears's testimony about Anderson's guilt was amply corroborated by other evidence.

Sears's testimony about Anderson's specific involvement in the crimes was corroborated by two jailhouse informants, both of whom knew Anderson before they became incarcerated. One of the informants said that Anderson admitted to him that Anderson and Wilson had gone to the Regency Club Apartments, that Wilson got into a “confrontation” with Camp, and that Anderson drove off without Wilson. The second informant described a conversation he had with both Anderson and Wilson in which Anderson said that he and Wilson were going to “beat” the charges “because they ain't got nothing on us” and that Sears “is the only one telling.” According to the informant, when Anderson said this, Wilson “hit his leg, like to shut up,” and the conversation ended. Finally—and perhaps most importantly—this same informant described a second conversation in which Wilson complained that Sears was “telling everything” and that he was “going to try to get some of my people to go talk to [Sears] and see if he will change his statement.” Wilson then admitted that he, Anderson, and Sears had been “drinking, popping pills, and smoking weed” when they decided to make a drug sale at the apartments by Dougherty High School. But “when they got there, something went wrong with the drug sale” and Wilson shot Camp.

Based on the totality of the evidence, Sears's testimony was sufficiently corroborated under former OCGA § 24–4–8

. And in all, the evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Anderson was guilty of the crimes of which he was convicted.⁴ See Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307, 319(III)(B), 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)

; Powell v. State , 291 Ga. 743, 744, 733 S.E.2d 294 (2012) (“[a] person who does not directly commit a crime may be convicted upon proof that a crime was committed and that person was a party to it”) (citations and punctuation omitted). See also OCGA § 16–2–20 (b) (defining parties to a crime).

2. Anderson also contends the trial court erred when it failed to instruct the jury that, in order to convict him of the unlawful possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, it had to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he had a firearm “within arm's reach.” See OCGA § 16–11–106 (b)

( “Any person who shall have on or within arm's reach of his or her person a firearm ... during the commission of ... (1) Any crime against or involving the person of another ... and which crime is a felony, commits a felony[.]”). But as Anderson acknowledges, he did not object to the jury charge at trial. Accordingly, we review this claim only for plain error. See OCGA...