Hodges v. State
| Decision Date | 09 February 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. A00A2504.,A00A2504. |
| Citation | 248 Ga. App. 23,545 S.E.2d 157 |
| Parties | HODGES v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Thompson, Fox, Chandler, Homans & Hicks, Robert L. Chandler, Gainesville, for appellant.
Lydia J. Sartain, District Attorney, Arturo Corso, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee. MIKELL, Judge.
Edward Hodges was indicted on one count of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated assault, and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. A jury convicted him of aggravated assault and one weapon offense and acquitted him of aggravated battery and the corresponding firearm offense. On appeal, Hodges challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, the effectiveness of his trial counsel, and the admission of testimony concerning prior difficulties between Hodges and the victim. We affirm his conviction and remand for a hearing on his ineffective assistance of counsel claim.
1. Hodges first contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction of aggravated assault. We disagree.
On appeal from a criminal conviction, the evidence must be construed in the light most favorable to the verdict, and the appellant... no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence; moreover, an appellate court does not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility but only determines whether the evidence is sufficient under the standard of Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Conflicts in the testimony of the witnesses, including the State's witnesses, [are] a matter of credibility for the jury to resolve. As long as there is some competent evidence, even though contradicted, to support each fact necessary to make out the State's case, the jury's verdict will be upheld.
(Citations and punctuation omitted.) Turner v. State, 223 Ga.App. 448, 449(1)(a), 477 S.E.2d 847 (1996).
Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence reveals that the victim met Hodges in 1994, when he paid her to have sex with him. An abusive, long-term relationship developed. The victim testified that Hodges always kept a loaded gun on the seat of his truck. On July 4, 1997, he arrived at her home at approximately 10:00 p.m. She was drunk on gin and beer and high on crack cocaine. The two went to a bar and, later, a restaurant. Hodges expressed a desire for sex, which the victim could not accommodate due to her period. Apparently, he wanted to solicit a prostitute. The next thing the victim recalled was seeing her hands "draw up." Then she heard Hodges say, "Oh, shit, baby, look what you made me do." The victim was shot in the front of her neck. The bullet lodged in her spine, rendering her a paraplegic. The victim could not recall whether she handled Hodges' weapon that night. She admitted she had previously attempted suicide but denied shooting herself.
Hodges transported the victim to the hospital. There, he told Officer Charles Newman that the victim's gunshot wound was self-inflicted. According to Officer Newman, Hodges stated that he and the victim were talking and laughing about prostitutes. Hodges said the victim became upset, placed the gun to her neck, and pulled the trigger.
Dr. Casey Graybeal, a general surgeon, treated the victim immediately upon her arrival in the emergency room. Dr. Graybeal, who qualified as an expert in the care and treatment of gunshot wounds, testified that he saw no evidence that the gun was fired in very close proximity to the victim's skin. Dr. Graybeal explained that the factors associated with a wound inflicted by a gun fired at close range—skull fracture, gunshot powder burns, stippling, or "tattooing"—were absent in this case. He concluded that it would have been difficult to avoid "tattooing" if the gun was fired within a foot of the victim's head.
Bernadette Davy, a firearm examiner employed by the State Crime Laboratory, testified that when a gun is fired at close range, gunpowder gases that exit behind the bullet tend to cause stellate, or star-shaped, tearing of the skin. Sergeant Carol Martin, who investigated the shooting for the Gainesville Police Department, testified that at the hospital, an emergency room physician reported to her that he did not observe gunshot residue or stellate tearing around the wound. According to Sgt. Martin, both factors are typical of pressed contact wounds. Davy testified that stippling, as opposed to stellate tearing, is the physical bruising of the skin from...
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