Bell v. State
| Decision Date | 18 February 2022 |
| Docket Number | A21A1215 |
| Parties | BELL v. THE STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
A jury found Cortney Bell guilty of murder in the second degree cruelty to children in the second degree, and felony contributing to the dependency of a minor, in the death of her two-week-old daughter.[1] The trial court denied Bell's motion for new trial, and she now appeals, asserting that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdicts. For the following reasons, we conclude that the evidence was insufficient as to second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children. However, we find the evidence sufficient to sustain Bell's felony conviction for contributing to the dependency of a minor. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment in part and reverse it in part.
The evidence, viewed in support of the jury verdict, showed that Bell lived in a mobile home park in a trailer rented for her by her father. Approximately three weeks after Bell moved into the home, her boyfriend Christopher McNabb moved in with her. On September 23, 2017, Bell gave birth to the victim without any complications, although the victim was born a few weeks preterm. The victim was discharged from the hospital four days later. McNabb was the victim's father and the father of the victim's two-year-old sister C. M.
On October 1, 2017, when the victim was eight days old, Bell left the victim and C. M. at the home of her cousin Megan Sorrells, along with a diaper bag. Sorrells explained that Bell always had bruises on her and that there was "some violence going on between" Bell and McNabb. She explained further that Bell knew the children would be safe with her, "out of the chaos and the argument," and away from Bell and McNabb's drug use.
Two days later, however, on October 3, Sorrells told her mother she was "tired with all the kids, with her four [children] and [the victim and C. M.]," and her mother contacted Bell's father (hereinafter, "the grandfather"). The grandfather went to pick the girls up from Sorrells because Sorrells had four children of her own and did not need the burden "of trying to look after two more babies." When he arrived, he put C. M. in his car and told Sorrells he would be back for the victim. The grandfather explained that he then went to Bell's home to retrieve a car he had lent her because he was told that Bell and McNabb were "doing drugs . . . heavy drugs," but when he arrived, McNabb "took off running up the hill," and Bell took C. M. out of his car. The grandfather then went back to Sorrells' home to retrieve the victim.
Bell and McNabb told the grandfather that they were going to have him arrested for taking the victim. The grandfather called 911 to report that he was taking the victim and keeping her with him because Bell and McNabb had abandoned the children. At trial, he explained that he was concerned for the children's welfare and that Bell and McNabb were using methamphetamine. The 911 dispatcher told the grandfather that officers were at Bell's home.
Bell had also called 911 and reported that the grandfather had taken the children without her permission. The deputy who arrived at Bell's home in response to the call told Bell to allow the grandfather to keep the victim for a while to "let things cool off," and that as long as the victim was safe, there was no reason to bring her back. Bell also complained to the deputy that the grandfather had picked up the car he lent to Bell and would not return it. Both Bell and McNabb asked the grandfather to return the car in exchange for him having the children. The deputy noticed that Bell had a fresh black eye, and when he asked Bell about it, she refused to "tell [him] where she got it from." At some point, Sorrells' mother took C. M. back to her grandfather.
Two days later, on October 5, 2017, the grandfather picked Bell up and took her to his home so that she could see the children. He took her back home later that day. The grandfather told Bell "that she needed to clean the house up and get the house in order before [he] would bring the babies back." He explained that there were "clothes here and clothes there and dishes in the sink" at Bell's home, but that she "cleaned up the trailer" by Friday afternoon, October 6. The grandfather took the children back to Bell's home that day around noon, and he supplied Bell with "milk and diapers." He testified that when he returned the children, there were no injuries to the victim's body, head, or face, and that he had never seen any signs of abuse on either the victim or her sister. When the grandfather arrived at Bell's home, McNabb was hiding behind a tree. He explained that he and McNabb "never got along much," and that McNabb would avoid him when he came to Bell's home.
On October 6, the same day the grandfather returned the children to Bell, another one of Bell's cousins, Craig Weatherford, arrived at her home around 8:00 p.m. to smoke methamphetamine with Bell and McNabb. Weatherford stayed only for about 15 minutes and saw that the victim was in the back bedroom in her bassinet. He stated that he went into the bedroom to see the victim and that while he was looking at her, Bell and McNabb came "back there and they [were] being loud and I was like y'all be quiet and that was it and I left."
On the morning of October 7, around 9:30 a.m., the grandfather received a call from Bell telling him that the victim was missing and asking him if he had the victim. The grandfather told Bell that he did not have the victim and to call 911. Bell also contacted her friend Melissa Davis around 10:00 a.m., sending her a text message that "the baby is gone." Davis went to Bell's home and found McNabb standing on the porch. McNabb told Davis "they're going to think I did this. . . . the baby is gone." Davis told McNabb to "calm down" and helped Bell "look[ ] up under clothes and stuff" for the victim. Davis At 10:38 a.m., as Davis was leaving, Bell called 911. She told the dispatcher:
Bell explained further that the last time she was with the victim was at 5:00 a.m. and that McNabb had just left to look for the child.
Deputies arrived at Bell's home at around 10:58 a.m. The grandfather arrived soon after and joined others in looking for the victim. Bell told deputies that McNabb received a text message from his father around 9:30 a.m. and "at that time, the children were okay." She explained that around 10:30 a.m., C. M. "woke her up upset and said Sissy gone." Bell said that she had last seen the victim when she and McNabb fed her around 5:00 a.m.
One of the deputies noted, and body camera video shows, that Bell would be "calm, collected, and then as she began describing what happened to the [victim], . . . she'd start to panic a little bit and then she would go right back down to being calm and collected." Bell told the deputy that McNabb "was out looking for the [victim]" in a wooded area near the home. The deputy and other law enforcement officers who had arrived on the scene searched both the inside of the home and the surrounding area outside, and they noted that there were no signs of forced entry into the home. They also noted that there were no signs of "any type of trauma" in the bedroom where the victim and C. M. had been sleeping. A neighbor told one of the deputies that she noticed the door of Bell's home was open "all morning . . . for at least a couple of hours," and that she saw someone come out onto the porch and then go back inside.
Approximately 20-30 minutes later, McNabb appeared coming from the direction of a nearby highway. He was "soaking wet" with muddy feet, had "green stuff" on him from walking in the woods, and was extremely nervous. McNabb told a deputy that he had gone into the woods to look for the victim. One of the deputies noticed that McNabb was "fidgeting, like going in and out his pockets, looking . . . left, looking right." McNabb pulled out a flashlight, indicating that he had used it while looking for the victim, even though it had been daylight since about 7:40 a.m.
Additional officers and investigators, as well as K-9 units, were called to the trailer park to help search for the victim, to no avail. Law enforcement officers remained at the scene until around 9:00 p.m. and then called off the search for the day.
Bell and McNabb were separately transported to the sheriff's office and separately interviewed after being advised of their Miranda rights. They were not placed under arrest and voluntarily gave statements to police.
Bell told investigators that the night before, the victim and C M. slept in the bedroom while she and McNabb slept in the living room on the couch. She stated that the victim woke up at...
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