Cheney v. State
Decision Date | 23 June 1998 |
Docket Number | No. A98A1050.,A98A1050. |
Citation | 503 S.E.2d 327,233 Ga. App. 66 |
Parties | CHENEY v. The STATE. |
Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Lee Sexton & Associates, Lee Sexton, Jonesboro, for appellant.
Tommy K. Floyd, District Attorney, Thomas R. McBerry, Sandra A. Graves, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
Defendant was charged in an indictment with aggravated assault, by use of a deadly weapon, and also with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The evidence at his jury trial revealed the following: Shortly after 7:00 a.m. on Sunday July 7, 1996, Officer Tony Hajjar of the Locust Grove Police Department responded to a call of a "person shot." As Officer Hajjar arrived, Officer Hajjar tried After the emergency medical technicians arrived, Officer Hajjar After these warnings, defendant "said, `I shot him.'" The weapon was recovered from defendant's residence, "on an ironing board ... between the kitchen and living room." The weapon contained "[f]ive spent cartridges...." Sergeant Keith Nichols with the Henry County Bureau of Police Services identified a half-gallon bottle of vodka and two empty shot glasses recovered from Rusty Blaydes' mobile home.
Scott Ted Strickland, the victim, testified he was at the mobile home of his friend, Rusty Blaydes, "helping him sheetrock and renovate it." They After complimenting the renovation work, defendant "left and he came back a while later." He "had a bottle of vodka in his hand[, and said,] `This is a welcome to the neighborhood bottle.'" After the victim consumed his second shot glass of vodka, the defendant The victim The victim "hollered, `Run,' and ... threw [his] hands up over [his] face and ... arms up over [his] chest ..., and [he] was struck in the elbow." The victim turned and fled towards the door, and The victim was
Rusty Duke Blaydes confirmed that defendant was "standing in front of the window, drinking ... out of the bottle, and just all of a sudden he goes [to the victim], ... `I want to kick your a—, MF.'" Rusty Blaydes Rusty Blaydes further confirmed that, "with no provocation of any nature whatsoever, [defendant] pulled out a pistol and shot [the victim] five times."
Defendant testified he acted in self-defense, only after Rusty Blaydes kicked him in the groin, shooting "without aiming or looking where [he] was shooting, [and that] in panic [he] pulled the gun and emptied it, all five rounds...." Nevertheless, the jury found defendant guilty as charged. This direct appeal followed. Held:
1. Defendant first enumerates the denial of his motion for mistrial predicated upon the State's reference to defendant's initial exercise of his right to remain silent.
In the State's opening statement, the State's Attorney told the jury that, when defendant was asked if he would speak to police without a lawyer, "he told them, `No, I don't think I will,'" to give some context to defendant's subsequently volunteered custodial statement, "I shot him." Defendant's motion for mistrial was denied but the trial court ordered the State's Attorney to "stay off of that." After trial, defendant renewed his motion for mistrial, asking first that the jury be admonished "to totally disregard whatever that comment was...." The trial court noted it excluded evidence of that statement and had already charged the jury that "anything said in the opening statements and closing arguments was not evidence, and that if anything were said in those that were not borne out by the evidence they should disregard it." Thereafter, defendant declined the trial court's offer to "specifically charge them to ignore that particular statement."
(a) The decision whether to grant a mistrial under OCGA § 17-8-75 is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court and its ruling will not be disturbed on appeal except upon an abuse of that discretion such that a new trial is necessary to protect the defendant's right to a fair trial. Cowards v. State, 266 Ga. 191, 193(3), 194 (3, c), 465 S.E.2d 677; Floyd v. State, 227 Ga.App. 873(1), 490 S.E.2d 542. (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Brewer v. State, 219 Ga.App. 16, 18(4), 19, 463 S.E.2d 906.
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