Granville v. State

• Decision Date: 28 October 2002
• Docket Number: No. S02A1101.,S02A1101.
• Citation: 275 Ga. 663,571 S.E.2d 759
• Parties: GRANVILLE v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

571 S.E.2d 759

275 Ga. 663

GRANVILLE v. The STATE.

No. S02A1101.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

October 28, 2002.

Carl P. Greenberg, Atlanta, for appellant.

Paul L. Howard, Jr., Dist. Atty., Bettieanne C. Hart, Elizabeth A. Baker, Asst. Dist. Attys., Thurbert E. Baker, Atty. Gen., Madonna M. Heinemeyer, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

HINES, Justice.

Raymond Granville appeals from his conviction for the malice murder of Thomas Smothers.¹ For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

In his sole enumeration of error, Granville asserts that the evidence is insufficient to authorize the jury to find him guilty of the crime of which he was convicted. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Construed to support the verdicts, the evidence showed that two witnesses saw Granville attacking Smothers on the street; Granville was striking Smothers and pulling at him while Smothers held onto a tree, pleading with Granville. Smothers referred to Granville by his nickname, "Red." Granville dragged Smothers into an alley. Smothers dragged himself from the alley, and Granville continued to punch and then kick and "stomp" Smothers. One witness saw a knife in Granville's hand as he dragged Smothers to the alley, and as Granville walked away after the attack; the other witness saw "something sharp" and described some of Granville's motions with his hands as "slicing" at Smothers's face. Both witnesses lived in the area and knew Granville by sight prior to the attack.

Smothers suffered a fatal stab wound to his abdomen. There were also many cuts to his face and other body parts. When police arrived shortly after the attack, Smothers was still alive and told the police that the mother of the assailant lived in the same nearby rooming house as Smothers, in the first room on the left. There was a considerable amount of blood at the crime scene, and a trail of blood led from the crime scene to the rooming house. As police approached the rooming house, Granville fled the building, but was shortly apprehended. Police recovered a bloodstained knife from the floor of the rooming house hallway.

Granville contends, in part, that the evidence did not authorize the verdict of malice murder because there was no evidence that he had a knife during the attack on Smothers, or that there was any blood on Granville. However, this contention ignores the testimony that one witness saw Granville with a knife during the attack, and the other saw Granville "slicing" Smothers with something sharp. Further, a police officer testified that Granville had blood on him when apprehended, and one witness to the attack testified that when he saw Granville after the attack, but before his apprehension, Granville had changed clothes.

Granville notes that the State did not test the knife found in the rooming house to compare it with Smothers's wounds, and did not produce the actual knife...