Barnes v. State, 36001
| Decision Date | 09 April 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 36001,36001 |
| Citation | 245 Ga. 609,266 S.E.2d 212 |
| Parties | BARNES v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Roosevelt Warren, Sparta, for appellant.
Joseph H. Briley, Dist. Atty., Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Michael R. Johnson, Staff Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
The defendant appeals from his conviction of murder, for which he received a life sentence.
1. The first three enumerated errors raise the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict.
There was evidence adduced from which the jury was authorized to find the following. At approximately 8:45 a. m. on February 11, 1978, 11-year-old Beverly Brown was shot and killed in her home near Sparta, Georgia, by a .22 caliber bullet, which was fired from woods behind the house and which passed through the back door of the house. The .22 caliber Savage Springfield rifle identified as the murder weapon was found hidden in a barn one-fourth of a mile from the victim's house the day after the shooting. Fourteen witnesses, including the appellant, gave testimony that placed the appellant in the general area of the crime at approximately the time of its occurrence. Additionally, four witnesses gave testimony which more directly connected the appellant to the murder weapon. Marie Brown testified that she had seen the appellant on the morning of the murder, walking in the field carrying a rifle. Brenda Sanford testified that she had seen the appellant with the murder weapon some three days prior to the murder. Rosa Johnson testified that the appellant had easy access to the trailer where the murder weapon had been kept. Finally, Walter Monroe testified that he saw the appellant with the murder weapon a mere 10 minutes before the shooting occurred.
There was sufficient evidence from which the jury could have found malice. The appellant's wife, the sister-in-law of one of the victim's brothers, had moved out of town and was living with the victim's brother and his wife. In the weeks prior to the shooting, the appellant had tried unsuccessfully to obtain the victim's brother's telephone number from his mother-in-law and from the victim's sister and her other brother. The sister testified that the appellant had told her that his mother-in-law had lied about it, that he had killed once, and that he didn't mind killing again. Approximately three days prior to the victim's murder, a .22 caliber bullet was fired into the jamb of the same door through which the fatal bullet was to pass, approximately five-and-a-half feet above the ground. On both occasions, the appellant was seen with the murder weapon.
In conclusion, we find that the evidence presented was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact of the guilt of the appellant beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. The testimony of the appellant's statement approximately six weeks prior to this homicide to the effect that his mother-in-law had lied about the phone number of the place where his wife was living, that he had killed once, and that he didn't mind killing again was admissible, as relevant on the issues of motive, plan, intent, scheme, bent of mind and course of conduct, although it incidentally put the appellant's character in issue. Hudson v. State, 237 Ga. 443, 444, 228 S.E.2d 834 (1976); Spencer v. State, 236 Ga. 697(4b), 224 S.E.2d 910 (1976); Goldsmith v. State, 148 Ga.App. 786(4), 252 S.E.2d 657...
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