Edgehill v. State
| Decision Date | 26 September 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 41295,41295 |
| Citation | 253 Ga. 343,320 S.E.2d 176 |
| Parties | EDGEHILL v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Glenn Zell, Atlanta, for Peter Edgehill.
Lewis R. Slaton, Dist. Atty., Joseph J. Drolet, John Turner, Asst. Dist. Attys., Atlanta, Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., J. Michael Davis, for the State.
The appellant, Peter Edgehill, was convicted of the murders of Gilbert Ray Beckham and Josephine Hall. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment. He appeals. These are the facts:
In May of 1982, the victims' corpses were found in two trunks. The trunks appear to have been intentionally hidden from view. Each trunk contained the skeletonized remains of a body and floral-patterned bed linens. Medical testimony established that both victims had been dead for approximately one year prior to their discovery, and they both died from bullet wounds to the chest. The bodies were identified on the basis of clothing and jewelry found thereon, as well as through the victims' dental records. Evidence was introduced that the bed linens matched those which had been seen at the appellant's residence.
The trunks in which the victims' corpses were found were located in a building at 840 Gordon Street in Atlanta. The appellant purchased this building in 1980. At that time, the appellant lived with his girl friend, Peggy Morris, in a duplex residence at 1115 Oglethorpe Avenue in Atlanta. Gilbert Beckham and the appellant had been friends, but they were involved in an altercation before Beckham was murdered, and they were known to argue violently. Beckham was known to be a drug dealer, and he made frequent trips from the New York area to Atlanta. In addition, he was known to carry large amounts of cash in a dark brown pouch. He drove a 1981 silver Corvette with New Jersey license plates.
There was testimony from witnesses that Beckham and Ms. Hall left the New York area in the spring of 1981, and they were last seen in North Carolina. At that time, Beckham had the brown bag in his possession, and it appeared to be filled. The appellant testified that he was visited in Atlanta by Beckham in April of 1981.
The appellant became in arrears in his mortgage payments on the Oglethorpe Avenue and Gordon Street properties. During the summer of 1981, he borrowed $10,000 from Beckham. However, the Gordon Street and Oglethorpe Avenue properties were foreclosed in late 1981. A bloody mattress was observed among appellant's belongings. In addition, there was testimony that the appellant possessed a .22 calibre magnum handgun and a .38 calibre handgun.
Tom Morris, Jr., a former employee of the appellant's, testified that the appellant engaged him to drive a vehicle to the Oglethorpe residence in the spring of 1981. Morris testified that the vehicle had New Jersey plates. The appellant then told Morris to get the keys to the Gordon Street residence because Morris observed the money pouch in the vehicle, and the pouch appeared to be "filled up"; Morris was paid $100 by the appellant. Morris subsequently observed the back portion of the Gordon Street building boarded up, whereas it had not been before. Within 24 hours after the foregoing events with Morris occurred, the appellant had left Atlanta.
Beckham's Corvette was traced to a parking lot in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The brown bag was gone.
Peggy Morris, the appellant's girl friend, testified that the appellant had threatened to kill the victims and indicated after the victims were killed that he had killed them.
The appellant testified that he was at a family reunion in Pennsylvania during Memorial Day weekend of 1981.
1. First, the appellant argues in this appeal that the evidence is insufficient to prove the identity of the victims specifically and his guilt of the offenses generally. We disagree.
There was lay testimony that jewelry and clothes found on the victims in the trunks were articles belonging to them which they had worn in the past. In addition an expert in forensic medicine was allowed to identify the victims based on their dental records. Other, albeit circumstantial, evidence tied the appellant to the murders.
The foregoing evidence was sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), to establish the identity of the victims and the appellant's guilt of the offenses charged. See Washington v. State, 243 Ga. 329, 253 S.E.2d 719 (1979).
Although it would appear that the dental records constituted valid and admissible evidence (see Redd v. State, 240 Ga. 753(6), 243 S.E.2d 16 (1978); see also Smith v. State, 247 Ga. 612, 277 S.E.2d 678 (1981)), no objection to its introduction was made. See Redd v. State, 240 Ga., supra, at 755, 756, 243 S.E.2d 16.
2. Third, the appellant argues that his motion for mistrial should have been granted when, on cross-examination of him, the prosecuting attorney questioned him concerning his involvement in federal drug charges previously pending against him and Beckham.
We hold that the appellant cannot complain of this questioning, because he testified to these very incidents on direct examination, thereby opening the door to this line of cross-examination. See generally Kessel v. State, 236 Ga. 373(3...
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...cases: Wright v. State, 254 Ga. 484, 330 S.E.2d 358 (1985); Brown v. State, 253 Ga. 363, 320 S.E.2d 539 (1984); Edgehill v. State, 253 Ga. 343, 320 S.E.2d 176 (1984); Duck v. State, 250 Ga. 592, 300 S.E.2d 121 (1983); Wessner v. State, 236 Ga. 162, 223 S.E.2d 141 The attorney general cites ......
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...240 Ga. 352, 356, 240 S.E.2d 828 (1977), cert. den., 439 U.S. 882, 99 S.Ct. 218, 58 L.Ed.2d 194 (1978). Accord Edgehill v. State, 253 Ga. 343(3), 320 S.E.2d 176 (1984); Mann v. State, 167 Ga.App. 829(1), 308 S.E.2d 12 (1983). See also Cherry v. State, 159 Ga.App. 75(1), 282 S.E.2d 717 3. In......
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