Dixon v. State

• Decision Date: 02 November 2015
• Docket Number: No. S15A0836.,S15A0836.
• Citation: 298 Ga. 200,779 S.E.2d 290
• Parties: DIXON v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

298 Ga. 200

779 S.E.2d 290

DIXON

v.The STATE.

No. S15A0836.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Nov. 2, 2015.

Brian Maurice Condon, Margaret Elizabeth Heinen, Atlanta, for appellant.

Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Atty. Gen., Paula Khristian Smith, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Samuel S. Olens, Atty. Gen., Michael Alexander Oldham, Asst. Atty. Gen., Department of Law, Paul L. Howard Jr., Dist. Atty., Arthur C. Walton, Asst. Dist. Atty., Paige Reese Whitaker, Deputy Dist. Atty., Fulton County District Attorney's Office, for appellee.

MELTON, Justice.

Following a joint jury trial with his co-defendant, James Platt, Jarret Dixon was found guilty of the felony murder and malice murder of Santos Palacios–Vasquez, the voluntary manslaughter of Antonio Clark, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.¹ Dixon appeals, contending that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdicts, the trial court made improper evidentiary rulings, and the trial court erred by denying his motion to strike several jurors. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the record shows that, on the afternoon of September 28, 2009, Clark, Platt, and Dixon went to the apartment of Delman Higuera–Hernandez to engage in a drug transaction. Clark's girlfriend told police that, earlier that morning, she had dropped Clark off at Platt's home, where Dixon was also residing. At some point, the drug sale went awry, and gunfire ensued. Clark and Vasquez were fatally wounded, and Hernandez, Antonio Lara–Landero, and Dixon were wounded. Four different calibers of shell casings were recovered from the scene, in addition to eighty-eight grams of cocaine, and other substances that were suspected to be methamphetamine and heroin. Other apartment residents heard loud noises coming from Hernandez's apartment at approximately 4 p.m. and observed two men matching Dixon and Platt's description wearing white t-shirts and jeans leave the building in a silver sedan with tinted windows. Hernandez was taken to Northside Hospital at approximately 4:20 p.m., where he told a nurse that he had been shot by an intruder. Meanwhile, Platt took Dixon to Grady Memorial Hospital, and video cameras at the hospital showed Platt carrying Dixon inside after exiting a silver Pontiac Grand Prix, which Platt was known to drive. Blood samples discovered at the scene of the shooting were positively matched to both Hernandez and Dixon, and a box of 5.7 millimeter bullets was discovered in another silver sedan, this one an Infiniti, that was leased to Platt and discovered parked at the crime scene. There was some testimony that Platt had loaned the Infiniti to Clark on the day of the shootings. The medical examiner recovered a bullet from Vasquez which had blue plastic on it, and the bullets taken from Platt's car had blue polymer tips. A search of the residence shared by Platt and Dixon uncovered a white t-shirt stained with Dixon's blood. The search also uncovered Dixon's cell phone, which contained messages sent to Clark in the minutes before the drug transaction.

Dixon instructed Clark: "We went to da apartment. Go straight back. You gonna see us." Clark responded: "There is an amigo on the front steps. We're here already." After his arrest, Dixon denied knowing any of the other defendants and fabricated a story that he had been shot in a confrontation at a gas station.

This evidence was sufficient to support the jury's findings of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

Dixon nonetheless contends that the evidence presented by the State was not sufficient to authorize his conviction because there was no evidence he directly committed the crimes and no evidence from which the jury could conclude he was a party to the crimes. Pursuant to OCGA § 16–2–20(a), "[e]very person concerned in the commission of a crime is a party thereto and may be ... convicted of commission of the crime." Dixon maintains that the State presented only circumstantial evidence of his guilt that did not exclude every other reasonable hypothesis except that of his guilt as a party to the crimes, as required by former OCGA § 24–4–6.² "[Q]uestions as to the reasonableness of hypotheses other than the guilt of the defendant are generally for the jury to decide, and this Court will not disturb a finding of guilt unless the evidence is insupportable as a matter of law." (Citation omitted.) Lowe v. State, 295 Ga. 623, 625(1), 759 S.E.2d 841 (2014). Furthermore, this Court will not resolve evidentiary conflicts and inconsistencies. See Flowers v. State, 275 Ga. 592(1), 571 S.E.2d 381 (2002). Mere presence at the scene of the crime and mere approval of a criminal act are insufficient to establish that a defendant was a party to the crime. "Proof that the defendant shares a common criminal intent with the actual perpetrators is necessary." (Citation omitted.) Eckman v. State, 274 Ga. 63, 65(1), 548 S.E.2d 310 (2001). But such shared criminal intent "may be inferred from the defendant's conduct before, during, and after the crime." Id. See also Brown v. State, 291 Ga. 887(1), 734 S.E.2d 41 (2012) (where defendant asked to be picked up by a friend to go looking for those he believed had shot at him, and the driver of the car that came to pick him up fired a shot toward the victim and others the defendant identified as the ones who shot at him, killing the victim, the evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction for murder and other charges as a party to the crimes). In this case, the evidence showed that: (1) before the crime, Dixon was texting Clark about coming to the apartment where he had already arrived in a silver sedan with Platt; (2) during the drug deal and the subsequent shootings, Dixon was in the subject apartment where his blood was later found; (3) immediately after the crime, witnesses saw two men matching Platt and Dixon's descriptions leaving quickly; (4) Dixon was rushed to the hospital by Platt in a silver Pontiac sedan; (5) ammunition of the type used to kill Vasquez was found in the silver Infiniti sedan that was also owned by Platt, with whom Dixon was living; and (6) Dixon denied knowing any of the other defendants and fabricated a story that he had been shot in a confrontation at a gas station. This evidence, though circumstantial, supported the jury's findings of guilt. Id.

2. Dixon contends that the trial court erred by allowing the admission of testimony regarding suspected narcotics other than...