Highfield v. State
| Decision Date | 07 October 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 36285,36285 |
| Citation | 272 S.E.2d 62,246 Ga. 478 |
| Parties | HIGHFIELD v. The STATE. , |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Bruce S. Harvey, Cornelia, for appellant.
Jeff C. Wayne, Dist. Atty., Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., William B. Hill, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
The defendant appeals from his convictions of murder and hindering the apprehension of a criminal, for which he received consecutive sentences of life and five years' imprisonment, respectively.
1. Enumerated errors 5, 6, and 14 raise the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence to authorize the convictions.
Evidence was adduced to the following effect. On the afternoon and night of May 8, 1979, Keith Fair, Becky Nation, Sherill Land, Dexter Thomas, "Beetle" Turner, and Jackie Morris were drinking together at the home of Thomas in Habersham County. Fair, Turner, Thomas and Morris all left Thomas' house together, then Fair, Thomas and Morris returned later without Turner.
According to Thomas, after leaving his (Thomas') house, Fair shot Turner while the latter set in Morris' car in Habersham County. The reason he gave for the shooting was Turner's failure to pay Fair for his assistance to Turner in setting fire to a trailer belonging to Morgan Whitlock, upon whom Turner had sworn vengeance. Thomas testified that he was present when Fair shot and killed Turner, placed the body in Turner's truck, and drove the truck into a river. Though Nation and Land were not present at the shooting, they did witness the truck being driven into the river by Fair in an attempt to conceal the murder of Turner, and Nation testified that she and Fair talked about the murder when he returned.
Fair wanted to burn Morris' blood-soaked car, so, after disposing of Turner's truck and body, all of the aforementioned persons agreed to meet at the Huddle House. Morris, Thomas, and Land rode together in one car, while Fair and Nation rode in a separate car. Fair and Nation went to the appellant's trailer to ask him to drive them in his Volkswagen car (which was quieter than Fair's car) to the Huddle House. The three of them rode in the appellant's car, with the appellant driving, to the Huddle House, thence to a road near Lula, where they met Morris, Thomas, and Land, who were still in Morris' blood-soaked car. During that ride, Nation (who was in the back seat, not known to the appellant and Fair to be awake) heard Fair tell the appellant that he, Fair, would have to get rid of Morris, because the latter had been a rat in prison. After this, the appellant asked Fair, what about Nation, to which Fair replied that she would be "all right." After arriving at the intended scene of Morris' murder in Hall County, Fair parked the appellant's car, which he had been driving apparently from the Huddle House, got out, and went over to Morris' car, where Morris and Land were standing. After Fair told Morris that they would burn his whole car, rather than just the back seat, Morris stated that he wanted his tires removed so that he could recover the insurance money by claiming that the car had been stolen and stripped. At this point, Thomas got into the appellant's car with the appellant and Nation, and the appellant told Thomas that Fair had told the appellant that he was going to kill the appellant and Land, too. According to Land, Morris did not want his whole car burned. As Morris stooped down beside a tire to begin removing it, Fair shot him in the side of the head and face. . Thomas heard the three gunshots, but did not witness the actual shooting. Thomas testified that the appellant looked surprised when the shots were heard. Nation had passed out, drunk in the back seat of the appellant's car, having been drinking with Fair since early that morning.
Following the shooting, Land got into the appellant's car while Thomas held Fair put Morris' body into Morris' own car. Land testified that the appellant told her that Fair trusted her and Thomas, and that "you all better not let him down." Fair attempted to get gas from the victim's car by beating, then shooting a hole in the gas tank. Fair then got into the appellant's car and told the occupants that "this can go both ways," which the witness, Land, construed to mean that Fair was going to kill them also. Land heard Fair say that Morris had been an "SOB on the chain gang." The appellant drove Land and Thomas home, then took Fair and Nation to his trailer home.
Morris' burned car and body were found on June 9. A bumper jack was found under the car, and a bullet was recovered from the gas tank. The next day, Turner's body was found in his submerged truck. It was stipulated that the bullets recovered from the two victims (which caused their deaths) and the gas tank had been fired from the same gun.
The appellant's in-custody statements, admitted in evidence following a Jackson v. Denno, hearing, were to the following effect: that Fair came to the appellant's trailer around 12:30 (on the night of the murders) with blood on his pants and a pistol protruding from his pocket, and asked the appellant to drive him and Nation to the Huddle House; that the appellant had asked Fair if he had been cut or stabbed, to which Fair said he had not; that Fair had said that he had been in trouble and that he intended to burn Morris' car because there was blood from Turner's murder all over the back seat; 1 that the appellant then drove Fair and Nation to the restaurant, but Thomas, Morris and Land had left; that they then drove toward Lula, where they found Thomas, Morris and Land; that, after reaching the murder scene, Fair argued with Morris about burning Morris' car; that Fair shot Morris, and Thomas helped Fair put the body in Morris' car; that, through his rearview mirror while sitting in the driver's seat, the appellant saw Thomas making motions with his arms as though he were cutting Morris' throat; that Thomas and Fair had then gotten in the appellant's car, and they all drove away; that Thomas threw out of the car his knife, shoes and shirt, saying that this was the second pair of shoes he had to throw away that night; that Thomas had said that Morris had tough skin to cut; that Fair had thrown his pistol (which was never recovered) out the car window as they drove over a bridge in Lula; that the appellant drove Fair to the appellant's trailer, where Fair took a bath; and that the appellant took the front tires off his VW and burned them, as Fair had told him to do.
Fair, a main defense witness for the appellant, invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to most of the questioning, but testified that, although he had asked the appellant to drive him to the Huddle House and toward Lula, the appellant had nothing to do with the Morris murder. Martha Evans, a friend of the appellant's, testified that Becky Nation (who had been passed out, drunk, during much of the incident in question) had told her that the appellant had not been involved in the murder. Haskell Ransom, a cellmate of Thomas, testified that Thomas had told him that the appellant had sat in his car during the entire episode of Morris' murder.
The appellant's testimony was basically the same as the contents of his statements, although he denied having told Detective Attaway that he had seen Thomas cut Morris' throat. He claimed no participation in the Morris murder and no knowledge about Turner's earlier murder. He stated that he had not immediately driven away from the murder scene because of his fear of Fair after the murder.
Thus, there was evidence to the following effect. In the middle of the night, Fair, whom the appellant knew, came to the appellant's residence, with blood (which Fair told him was not his own) on his pants and a pistol protruding from his pocket. Fair asked the appellant to drive him somewhere (ostensibly to a restaurant), and en route he stated that he had been "in trouble," that he intended to burn Morris' car because there was blood from Turner's murder all...
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