Goforth v. State
| Decision Date | 15 November 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. S99A1647.,S99A1647. |
| Citation | 523 S.E.2d 868,271 Ga. 700 |
| Parties | GOFORTH v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Rodney L. Mathis, Calhoun, for appellant.
T. Joseph Campbell, District Attorney, Lance T. McCoy, Assistant District Attorney, Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Wesley S. Wood, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Eugene Goforth shot and killed David Slaughter. At the time of the homicide, Slaughter was in the bedroom of his own home engaging in an act of consensual sex with his former wife, Johnette Slaughter. Prior to her reconciliation with Slaughter, Ms. Slaughter was romantically involved with Goforth and, at one point, she was engaged to marry him. There was a history of bad blood between Goforth and Slaughter over Ms. Slaughter's affections. A short time before the homicide, a confrontation between the two ended with Slaughter shooting Goforth, and Goforth had threatened to kill Slaughter if he ever caught the former spouses together. On the night of the shooting, Goforth received information that Ms. Slaughter was at her ex-husband's home. Goforth armed himself, put on a camouflage outfit, and drove to Slaughter's residence but parked some distance away. He then cut the telephone line and the transmission line in Ms. Slaughter's car, and spied on the Slaughters for some hours. When the two began having sexual relations, Goforth fired through the bedroom window and shot Slaughter in the chest. The jury found Goforth guilty of numerous offenses, including alternative counts of the malice or felony murder of Slaughter, and the commission of an aggravated assault against Ms. Slaughter. With regard to the homicide, the trial court entered a judgment of conviction and life sentence only on the verdict finding Goforth guilty of malice murder, thereby vacating the felony murder count by operation of OCGA § 16-1-7. Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369, 373(5), 434 S.E.2d 479 (1993). After denial of his motion for new trial, Goforth brings this appeal.1
1. Goforth raises a general grounds objection to his conviction for the malice murder of Slaughter, contending that he is guilty only of voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter requires some evidence that the defendant acted "solely as the result of a sudden, violent, and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a reasonable person...." OCGA § 16-5-2(a). A spouse's adulterous conduct can serve as sufficient provocation to reduce a homicide from murder to voluntary manslaughter. Strickland v. State, 257 Ga. 230, 231(2), 357 S.E.2d 85 (1987). The rationale of Strickland also applies where, as here, the accused is not married to one of the parties caught in the compromising situation. Although the evidence was sufficient to authorize a finding of voluntary manslaughter, it did not demand such a finding. Based upon all of the evidence, the jury was authorized to find that Goforth shot to avenge himself against Slaughter's past acts, rather than as the result of any present provocation resulting from the Slaughters' reconciliation. Even where a spouse claims sexual jealousy as the provocation for a killing, Campbell v. State, 204 Ga. 399, 403(1), 49 S.E.2d 867 (1948). Construing the evidence most strongly against Goforth, a rational trier of fact was authorized to find proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty of the malice murder of Slaughter. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. Because the valid malice murder conviction operates to vacate the felony murder count by operation of law, we need not consider the sufficiency of the evidence as to that alternative charge. Tiller v. State, 267 Ga. 888, 890(2), 485 S.E.2d 720 (1997), overruled on other grounds, ...
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Perkinson v. State, S00A1710.
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