DeVanna v. State
| Decision Date | 19 October 2021 |
| Docket Number | S21A0990 |
| Citation | 864 S.E.2d 409 |
| Parties | DEVANNA v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Brian Steel, The Steel Law Firm, P.C., 1800 Peachtree Street, N.W., Suite 300, Atlanta, Georgia 30309, for Appellant.
Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Parisia Faith Sarfarazi, Assistant Attorney General, Matthew Blackwell Crowder, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Gerald Lee Henderson, A.D.A., Office of the District Attorney Western Judical Circuit, 325 East Washington Street, Office of District Attorney, Suite 370, Athens, Georgia 30601, Jeffrey Paul Kwiatkowski, A.D.A., Deborah Gonzalez, District Attorney, Western Circuit District Attorney's Office, 325 East Washington St., Third Floor, Athens, Georgia 30601, for Appellee.
After a jury trial in June 2019, Alexander DeVanna was convicted of malice murder and other crimes related to the shooting death of his wife, Casey DeVanna.1 DeVanna appeals, contending that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution by failing to request a proper jury instruction on the legal principle that a convicted felon can possess a firearm while acting in self-defense under certain circumstances. We disagree and affirm DeVanna's convictions.
1. (a) The evidence presented at DeVanna's trial showed that DeVanna and Casey married in May 2017 and began living in St. Petersburg, Florida. Several months into their "rocky" marriage, the couple decided to go on a road trip and camp in Georgia before heading out west. On August 26, 2017, DeVanna and Casey, along with their cat Gizmo, checked into Room 226 at the Best Western Hotel on Milledge Avenue in Athens, Georgia. On the afternoon of August 27, after check-out time, housekeeping staff found Casey's body lying on one of the two beds in Room 226 with her legs hanging off of the side of the bed and her feet touching the floor. A staff member called 911, and shortly thereafter, local law enforcement, the Athens-Clarke County Fire Department, and National EMS all arrived at the hotel.
Officers observed that "a lot" of blood from Casey's nostrils and mouth had dried on her face. She was lying sideways across the twin bed furthest from the door with her legs dangling down the side of the bed as if she had been sitting on the side of the bed and then laid backwards. An officer later testified that pillows were lying on top of Casey's arms and that four drinks were sitting on the nightstand upright and undisturbed, adjacent to the bed where she lay. A detective testified that he saw no evidence of any sort of violent struggle in the room. He also testified that when some of the other first responders present at the scene rolled Casey over on the bed to prepare to remove her body, he observed blood pooling out of her head, which he said indicated that Casey's body had not been moved since she was killed.
Upon processing the crime scene, law enforcement officers found, among other things, a piece of G.E.D. paperwork and a high school diploma belonging to "Alexander T. DeVanna," a receipt from a pizza shop located across the street from the Best Western with the name "Alex" and room number 226 listed on the receipt, and shotgun shell casings from the nightstand.
Six days later, DeVanna checked into a campground near Ocala, Florida. Athens-Clarke County law enforcement officers began tracking the location of his cell phone that same day and issued a be-on-the-lookout alert to local law enforcement in Marion County, Florida. The next morning, local officers on a routine patrol identified DeVanna and his car at a campground bathroom. Officers arrested DeVanna and took him into custody.
Two Athens-Clarke County detectives traveled to Florida and, after advising DeVanna of his rights under Miranda ,2 conducted a video-recorded interview. During that interview, DeVanna claimed that Casey found text messages on his phone between Paige Vargas (one of DeVanna's former romantic partners) and DeVanna,3 that Casey became angry at him, and that he later awoke to Casey loading a round into the chamber of a gun, which she pointed at DeVanna's head. He further claimed that in the ensuing struggle over the firearm, "his pinky might have fired the weapon." One detective observed scratches on the side of DeVanna's torso during the interview.
A search of DeVanna's campsite in Florida revealed a Taurus 9mm pistol that a GBI firearms examiner later testified contained characteristics that matched those on the bullet recovered from Casey's body. That search also revealed two identification cards belonging to Casey and a receipt from an Athens RaceTrac ATM dated August 27.
The State also introduced evidence that Dakota Waite, a close friend of DeVanna's, exchanged messages with DeVanna through Facebook Messenger a week before Casey's death. Specifically, DeVanna messaged Waite saying, "Going to shoot my wife and myself prob [sic] today," and "going to shoot dope today." DeVanna sent Waite a photo of himself holding a gun to his head and of a self-inflicted cut from DeVanna's wrist up to his elbow. In response, Waite asked DeVanna, "Where's yer [sic] wife?!" DeVanna responded "I'm about to shoot her in the head and go get f***ed up one last time."
The State also introduced evidence of other social media and text messages DeVanna sent on the night of, and the night after, Casey's death. On the night of August 26—the night of the shooting—DeVanna sent a Facebook message to a different friend, Jarrett Russo, stating, "I am in Athens, Georgia, about to leave my wife." DeVanna went on to say, "We planned on camping in GA but she's out of her meds and is making it hard for me not to hurt her lol." DeVanna also told Russo that while stopped at a gas station in Georgia during their road trip, Casey had thrown his possessions out of the car and driven off without him, but that she returned later to retrieve him and help him pick up his belongings. DeVanna told Russo that, after this episode and upon arriving at the hotel, Casey was "passed out now haha." He also wrote, "I got to leave before I end up in prison" and suggested that he might steal Casey's car. Russo responded, "That's grand theft auto" and "jail either way."
The next day, DeVanna sent a text message to a third friend, Tanner Hackney, saying, "I love you brother but this will prob [sic] be the last time you hear from me." Hackney told DeVanna to call him and that "you can't just leave me hanging here." DeVanna responded, Hackney then began calling DeVanna until DeVanna called him back at approximately 2:00 p.m. DeVanna told Hackney that he woke up to Casey pointing a gun at his head and that he got up and wrestled the gun from her and "he had lost his anger and he shot her in the f***ing head."
DeVanna had also exchanged Facebook messages with Paige Vargas. On August 26, DeVanna messaged Vargas and told her that he was in Georgia "[b]ecause I'm a dumba** who got married." DeVanna wrote that the "[f]irst time I ever hit a woman was yesterday." DeVanna sent Vargas a photo he took the night before of the cut that spanned from his wrist to his elbow. He then messaged her, "I [sic] about to kill her man ... godamn [sic]." He then sent Vargas a photo of him pointing a gun at Casey's head while she was sleeping. Vargas urged DeVanna to "cool down" and to not "be dumb," but DeVanna responded, "If I let her live, she will continue to degrade me make [sic] me do more stupid sh*t." Hours later, DeVanna sent Vargas a message saying, "I did it" and "I'm so sorry." The next afternoon, DeVanna called Vargas and told her that he and Casey were wrestling over a gun and it went off. DeVanna told Vargas he intended to get a "bunch of drugs and try and kill himself."4
The State also presented evidence that around 12:50 a.m. on August 27, DeVanna went to an ATM at a nearby RaceTrac convenience store and made two withdrawals from Casey's account. Over the next six days, DeVanna made additional withdrawals from the account, including several in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The GBI forensic pathologist who performed Casey's autopsy testified that Casey suffered a gunshot wound to her face fired from an "intermediate range" likely in excess of six inches, and that the trajectory of the bullet was consistent with the shooter standing and Casey sitting. The pathologist characterized Casey's cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head and the manner of death as homicide. The autopsy showed that Casey suffered an additional blunt force injury to her head
.
The GBI forensic toxicologist who performed a drug screen on Casey testified that it revealed an analog of fentanyl
, a "C[entral] N[ervous] S[ystem] depressant" that will "slow down your brain" and "motor functions" and make you "drowsy," "sleepy," "confused," and dizzy. She testified that THC was also found in Casey's system.
DeVanna—who had stipulated to his status as a convicted felon—raised both self-defense and accident as defenses and testified in his own defense. He claimed that Casey's mood "was fluctuating" and "was sometimes high and then sometimes real low." He testified that, on the night of her murder, Casey went to sleep before he did, and that, after he went to sleep, he awoke to the sound of Casey "pulling back the slide" of a handgun and felt her pressing the gun to his head. DeVanna recounted that Casey then said something to the effect of, "You're messaging her again." DeVanna claimed that he began "wrestling [Casey] over the gun," took possession of the gun from her, and "pushed her down" before "she came back at [him]." He created some distance between the two of them, but then Casey latched onto his side and scratched him, which was "right about [the] time ... the firearm went off."...
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