Geter v. State, 28367
| Citation | 231 Ga. 615,203 S.E.2d 195 |
| Decision Date | 28 January 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 28367,28367 |
| Parties | Albert GETER v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Philip S. Davi, Atlanta, for appellant.
Lewis R. Slaton, Dist. Atty., James H. Mobley, Jr., Morris H. Rosenberg, Carter Goode, Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Courtney Wilder Stanton, David L. G. King, Jr., Asst. Attys. Gen., Atlanta, for appellee.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
The appellant, upon being convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in Fulton Superior Court, appealed the overruling of his amended motion for a new trial. Three alleged errors are enumerated for consideration by this court. The first asserted error complains that the trial court permitted an incompetent witness to testify on behalf of the State; the second alleged error urges that evidence favorable to the appellant was known by the prosecuting attorney but was not disclosed until after the trial, and the third error complained of is that the jury's verdict of guilty is not supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. After studying the record of the evidence at the trial, consisting of 434 pages, and the briefs filed by counsel in the case, we conclude that the judgment of the trial court overruling the amended motion for a new trial should be affirmed.
We turn first to the evidence. The record reveals the following testimony from state witnesses: On the evening of February 6, 1973, the appellant hailed Merle Adams to give him a ride in Adams' automobile from near the Flamingo Club on Auburn Avenue, in Atlanta, to East Point. The appellant along with Mary Louise Clark and another unidentified young woman, got into the automobile with Adams, who was alone. They first drove to an apartment, then proceeded back to the Flamingo Club and finally to Henry Grill on Auburn Avenue where they went in and made several purchases. Upon leaving the grill, they were joined by the deceased, Willie James Smith. The five of them traveled to the home of appellant's mother in East Point and subsequently departed, leaving the other woman behind at the Geter home. As the remaining four left, appellant got into the back seat of the automobile by himself. Adams continued driving with Mary Louise Clark in the middle of the front seat and the deceased, Willie James Smith, sitting on the right front side. As Adams drove his automobile carrying these three passengers along a one-way street near the intersection of the street with Auburn Avenue, Adams heard the deceased Smith ask appellant Geter for some money. Geter replied he had money and, suddenly after hearing a sound like a firecracker going off, the deceased lunged forward and cried out, A second shot was fired and the deceased stumbled or fell out of the automobile, which was then moving at a speed of about 20 miles per hour. Adams stated to appellant, Geter replied, 'Drive the car, drive the car,' and also said, 'he was glad that he had did it,' because the deceased, Smith, had previously killed a close friend of his. As the deceased emerged from the automobile onto the street, he encountered Jerome Carter, who had heard two shots and saw the deceased leave the vehicle. Upon inquiring of Willie James Smith who shot him, the deceased Smith, soon before expiring, replied to Jerome Carter that Al (Geter) had shot him. Another pedestrian in the vicinity, Bobby Hunter, also heard shots fired, but he saw only a male driver, whom he could not identify, in the automobile from which the deceased fell. A medical examination of the body of the deceased, Willie James Smith, revealed that two bullets had entered his body from the rear, one of which caused his death.
Appellant testified at the trial and denied he shot the deceased, or was even present when the deceased was shot. Instead, the appellant accused Adams, the driver of the automobile who was a witness for the state, of being responsible for the death of Willie James Smith. During the course of an investigation by the Atlanta Police Department, a city detective interviewed appellant. The detective testified at the trial that a close friend of appellant's had previously been found slain. From testimony elicited on cross examination of the detective at the trial, it appeared that appellant previously told this same detective in an earlier interview, concerning the death of appellant's close friend, that if appellant discovered his friend's assailant, the detective would have another case to investigate.
Appellant Geter contends that Jerome Carter, a witness for the State, was incompetent to testify at the trial because he was under medication at the time of his testimony and was brought to the courtroom on a stretcher from a hospital where he had been admitted as a patient for drug addiction two days prior to his appearance in court. At the request of appellant's attorney, the trial court conducted a hearing out of the presence of the jury to consider the competency of this witness to testify at the trial. Code § 38-1610 provides that the court shall, by examination, decide...
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