Kerlin v. State
| Decision Date | 30 October 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. S92A0952,S92A0952 |
| Parties | KERLIN v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Alfred F. Zachry, Ricardo G. Samper, Baldwin & Mallory, LaGrange, for Kerlin.
William G. Hamrick, Jr., Dist. Atty., Newnan, Peter J. Skandalakis, Dist. Atty., Carrollton, Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., Atlanta, for State.
Susan V. Boleyn, Senior Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Law, Robert D. McCullers, Staff Atty., Atlanta.
The appellant, Mark Kerlin, appeals from his convictions of the murder of Carol Scott, of the aggravated assault of Carol Scott's husband, Gerald Lee Scott, of criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, and of the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 1 On appeal Kerlin's sole enumeration of error is that the trial court erred by admitting evidence of two other crimes that Kerlin had committed. We disagree and affirm.
1. According to Mr. Scott, on December 6, 1989, at approximately 7:30 p.m., the Scotts were preparing to leave their house when they saw Kerlin enter their driveway. The Scotts knew Kerlin because he had recently done some tile work at their home. Kerlin got out of his truck, approached the Scotts, and told them that he needed to talk to them about something very important.
After the Scotts and Kerlin went inside the Scott's house to talk, Kerlin pulled out a gun and demanded $7,000 for some surgery he said his 7-year-old daughter needed. Mrs. Scott told Kerlin that she had money and jewelry in the car. Kerlin then ordered Mrs. Scott to tie her husband's hands and feet with some rope Kerlin had in his pocket and to get her car keys.
Mrs. Scott tied her husband's hands and feet, and Kerlin and Mrs. Scott left the house. As they reentered the house, Kerlin and Mr. Scott, who had untied himself and retrieved a .38 caliber pistol, exchanged gunfire. Kerlin shot Mr. Scott in the leg before Mr. Scott could escape through a "swampy" area behind the house to get to the nearest neighbor's house to call for help.
When the police arrived at the Scott's house, they found Mrs. Scott fatally wounded with a shot in the back of the head.
After the shooting, Kerlin fled with his girlfriend to West Virginia, where they were arrested three days later. In a statement Kerlin made to police and in his testimony at trial, Kerlin maintained that he went to the Scott's house with a friend named David Hayes or Hanes to get a loan. According to Kerlin, while Kerlin remained outside the Scott's house in his truck, David went into the house, became involved with an altercation with the Scotts, and shot and killed Mrs. Scott.
Having reviewed the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we conclude that a rational trier of fact could have found Kerlin guilty of the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. In his sole enumeration of error, Kerlin argues that the trial court erred in permitting the state to introduce evidence of two prior offenses that he had committed. We disagree.
At the outset, we note that the state presented sufficient evidence to show that Kerlin committed both of the other crimes in question. These...
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Barrett v. State
...424 (1992) (see also this author's special concurrence to Division 2 of Edwards, 262 Ga. at 472-473, 422 S.E.2d 424); Kerlin v. State, 262 Ga. 497(2), 422 S.E.2d 183 (1992). All prior act evidence, whether the prior act involves the accused and the victim or the accused but not the victim, ......