Delaney v. State
| Decision Date | 20 August 2018 |
| Docket Number | S18A0637 |
| Citation | 818 S.E.2d 559,304 Ga. 256 |
| Parties | DELANEY v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Jennifer Elaine Hildebrand, HILDEBRAND LAW OFFICE, P.C., P. O. Box 1602, LaFayette, Georgia 30728, for Appellant.
Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Matthew David O'Brien, Assistant Attorney General, DEPARTMENT OF LAW, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Herbert E. Franklin, Jr., District Attorney, LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN JUDICIAL CIRCUIT DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, 114 East Patton Street, LaFayette, Georgia 30728, for Appellee.
Appellant Raven Marie Delaney was convicted of malice murder and related offenses arising from the shooting deaths of John Evans and Robert Holcomb.1 On appeal, Appellant contends that trial counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance; finding no error, we affirm.
Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence adduced at trial established as follows. The victims, Evans and Holcomb, lived in a trailer in Catoosa County, Georgia, where they sold methamphetamine. On the night of April 5, 2004, a number of individuals gathered with the two men at the trailer, including Appellant, Josh Rood, and Lindsey Stamey. During the gathering, Appellant asked Stamey if she wanted to help "roll"—or rob—the victims; Stamey declined the offer, reported the odd request to her mother, and eventually went home. At some point, Appellant was left as the only remaining guest in the victims’ residence.
In the early morning hours of April 6, 2004, Appellant called Rood numerous times seeking his help with robbing the victims, but Rood, too, declined to get involved. Hours later, Appellant arrived at Rood’s location driving Evans’ van; once there, Appellant admitted to Rood that she had shot Evans and Holcomb, as well as stolen their methamphetamine and cash. Appellant gave a firearm to Rood, who cleaned and hid the gun, and Rood parked Evans’ van at the dead end of a nearby gravel road. Shortly thereafter, Appellant and Rood visited Stamey, at which point Appellant gave Stamey methamphetamine, free of charge. Appellant met with Stamey a second time that day—this time accompanied by her half brother, Dustin Petet—and again provided Stamey with free drugs. The jury heard testimony that it was unusual for Appellant to give away methamphetamine.
Later that evening, Evans and Holcomb were discovered shot dead in their trailer. Rood directed the investigators to the gun, which was determined to be the murder weapon. Appellant gave two statements to law enforcement. In the first interview, she denied knowing anything about the murders; in the second statement, however, she detailed how Rood committed the murders while she was merely outside waiting for a ride. Finally, the jury heard testimony that Appellant had independently told both Petet and another man, John Paul Dover, that she had shot the victims because they had "shorted her" on drugs and that she was going to use a recent mental-health crisis to claim insanity.
1. Although Appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, it is our customary practice in murder cases to review the record independently to determine whether the evidence was legally sufficient. Having done so, we conclude that the evidence as summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Appellant was guilty of the crimes of which she was convicted. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. In her sole enumeration of error, Appellant contends that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object when, during its case-in-chief, the State questioned one of its witnesses about Rood "passing" a polygraph examination concerning his involvement in the murders. Appellant argues that the polygraph testimony was inadmissible because it served only to bolster Rood’s trial testimony and that the testimony hampered the defense’s theory that Rood was the actual murderer. This argument is without merit.
To establish ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show that trial counsel’s performance was professionally deficient and that, but for such deficient performance, there is a reasonable probability that the result of the trial would have been different. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (III), 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) ; Wesley v. State, 286 Ga. 355 (3), 689 S.E.2d 280 (2010). To prove deficient performance, one must show that his attorney "performed at trial in an objectively unreasonable way considering all the circumstances and in the light of prevailing professional norms." Romer v. State, 293 Ga. 339, 344, 745 S.E.2d 637 (2013). ...
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Harrison v. State
...due to a hung jury, "It had worked the first time and I wanted to stick with what I felt like worked." As in Delaney v. State , 304 Ga. 256, 258 (2), 818 S.E.2d 559 (2018), "the testimony was utilized by trial counsel to support the defense's theory that [Kenny] was the actual murderer." Tr......