Causey v. State

• Decision Date: 05 December 1994
• Docket Number: No. A94A1582,A94A1582
• Parties: CAUSEY v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 564

452 S.E.2d 564

215 Ga.App. 723

CAUSEY v. The STATE.

No. A94A1582.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Dec. 5, 1994.

Reconsideration Denied Dec. 19, 1994.

Certiorari Denied March 17, 1995.

Jill L. Anderson, Douglas County Public Defender, Douglasville, Elizabeth A. Geoffroy, Decatur, for appellant.

David McDade, Dist. Atty., William H. McClain, Asst. Dist. Atty., Douglasville, for appellee.

RUFFIN, Judge.

Appellant, Robert Causey, was tried and convicted by a jury of aggravated battery against his wife and he appeals the conviction. The evidence showed that Causey's wife was severely bruised, beaten and in a coma when he brought her to the hospital. She was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma, more commonly understood as bleeding on the surface of the brain. Mrs. Causey is now in a vegetative state.

The night of the incident, Causey was taken into custody, given his Miranda rights and interviewed on videotape. During the interview he confessed that he and his wife had argued and he had slapped her, left finger marks on her face and that one strike "bounced her off the wall." The confession was played for the jury. In addition, a nurse who attended Mrs. Causey testified that she asked Causey how his wife's injuries were caused and he replied that he "just went off" and "threw her against the wall."

At trial, however, Causey denied even slapping his wife and insisted that she had suffered a seizure from cocaine use that evening which in turn caused her to fall on the bathroom floor, hit her head and go into a coma. The State presented evidence from a forensic pathologist as well as Mrs. Causey's neurosurgeon that the bruises and marks on Mrs. Causey's face were consistent with multiple blows from a human hand and inconsistent with a fall.

1. Causey contends the evidence was insufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find proof of aggravated battery beyond a reasonable doubt. "On appeal the evidence must be viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, and appellant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence; moreover, on appeal this court determines evidence sufficiency, and does not weigh the evidence...." (Citations omitted.) Grant v. State, 195 Ga.App. 463, 464(1), 393 S.E.2d 737 (1990). The record, including Causey's confession, the testimony of hospital personnel about Causey's admissions and the testimony of the pathologist and neurosurgeon, reveals ample evidence from which any rational trier of fact could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Causey was guilty of the offense of aggravated battery. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

2. Causey contends the trial court erred in failing to charge on the lesser included offense of simple battery. "The complete rule with regard to giving a defendant's requested charge on a lesser included offense is: where the state's evidence establishes all of the elements of an offense and there is no evidence raising the lesser offense, there is no error in failing to give a charge on the lesser offense. [Cit.]" Edwards v. State, 264 Ga. 131, 133, 442 S.E.2d 444 (1994). Here, there was no evidence at all that Causey committed the lesser offense of simple battery by virtue of his denial that he slapped his wife and his insistence that her injuries were caused by an overdose of cocaine resulting in a seizure which caused her to fall and hit her head. However, the jury did hear ample evidence that Causey committed aggravated battery. "Under this evidence, appellant was either guilty of aggravated battery or not guilty of any crime." McKissic v. State, 201 Ga.App. 525, 526, 411 S.E.2d 516 (1991). This enumeration is without merit.

3. Causey contends the trial court erred in failing to allow him to introduce evidence of his wife's prior drug use because the excluded evidence was the core of his defense that his wife's injuries were caused by a cocaine induced seizure. The exclusion of evidence on grounds of relevancy is a matter which rests within the sound discretion of the trial court and such a determination will not be disturbed on appeal absent a clear abuse of discretion. Moss v. State, 206 Ga.App. 310(1), 425 S.E.2d 386 (1992). We find no abuse of discretion. The court's restriction was only as to testimony about prior drug use by either Mr. or Mrs. Causey. However, Causey was allowed to testify as to his wife's use of cocaine on the night of the incident. Furthermore, despite the fact that the defense presented no medical evidence that Mrs. Causey had indeed suffered a seizure and the State presented expert medical testimony from a forensic pathologist and Mrs. Causey's neurosurgeon showing the injuries were inconsistent with a seizure, the court allowed Causey's pharmacology expert to testify that cocaine use can cause seizures in humans. Causey was also allowed to testify that his wife had a seizure that night. Thus, we are satisfied the trial court did not exclude evidence critical to Causey's defense, but simply prevented non-probative evidence from being presented to the jury.

4. Causey contends the trial court erred in restricting testimony from his pharmacology expert as to why the expert thought Mrs. Causey had overdosed on drugs and why people inject drugs in their neck. We can find no place in the record, including those pages cited in Causey's brief, where the subject of the expert's opinion regarding an overdose was raised. Thus, we find nothing for review. "No question is presented to this court unless the enumeration of errors and record clearly show that the question was presented to and passed on by the trial court." (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Loden v. State, 199 Ga.App. 683, 689(7), 406 S.E.2d 103 (1991).

As to the expert testifying about why, in his experience, people inject drugs into their neck, Causey apparently expected the expert would testify that it is generally experienced cocaine users or addicts who do so, thus getting before the jury evidence about prior drug use that the court had already ruled inadmissible. The court ruled that the proffered testimony about why people generally engage in this practice was speculative and had no applicability to the particular situation at hand. The court also found the testimony inconsistent with testimony Causey gave during a proffer that Dilaudid (rather than cocaine) was the drug his wife usually injected. We reiterate that a trial court's exclusion of evidence will not be disturbed absent an abuse of discretion. Moss, supra. We find no such abuse here, particularly as we have already affirmed the court's ruling excluding evidence of prior drug use, which the proffered testimony would appear to violate.

5. Causey contends the trial court erred in allowing the State to show a videotape of Mrs. Causey in her present permanent vegetative state because it was prejudicial and repetitive. We disagree. "To prosecute an accused for [aggravated battery], it must be shown that the defendant [maliciously] caused bodily harm to another by ... rendering a member of his body useless.... We find that the videotape was relevant and had probative value in that it illustrated for the jury the extent of ... the victim's injuries." (Punctuation omitted.) Dudley v. State, 204 Ga.App. 327, 328(2), 419 S.E.2d 138 (1992).

6. Causey contends the trial court erred by allowing the State to put his character in issue. Inexplicably, he cites four pages in the record to support this argument, but fails to specify any particular statement which did so. Nor does Causey show that he objected to his character being placed in issue with any of these unidentified statements or how he was harmed by them. Because the issue was not preserved for appeal and because neither the alleged error nor any harm have been specified on appeal, this enumeration is without merit. See Loden, supra and Asbury v. Ga. World Congress Cntr., 212 Ga.App. 628, 632, 442 S.E.2d 822 (1994) (instructing that this court's function is not to cull the record on behalf of a party to search for error and that appellant must show harm from the alleged error).

7. Causey contends the trial court erred in allowing into evidence his videotaped confession because the State did not provide him a complete copy of it as required at the time by former OCGA § 17-7-210. However, the State provided Causey a summary of the statement that the court found to be very consistent with the actual statement with no material omissions. "A 'verbatim account' of defendant's statements was not required, where counsel was given a written summary of the statement prior to trial which included all relevant and material portions of the defendant's ... in-custody statements. [Cit.]" Orr v. State, 209 Ga.App. 832, 834, 434 S.E.2d 723 (1993). Like his contention regarding the character evidence, Causey has failed to articulate in what respect the summary was deficient or how he was harmed by it. Thus, this enumeration presents no grounds for reversal.

8. Causey contends the trial court...