Lewis v. State
| Decision Date | 08 September 2021 |
| Docket Number | S21A0787 |
| Citation | 863 S.E.2d 65,312 Ga. 537 |
| Parties | LEWIS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
David T. Lock, David T. Lock, LLC, P.O. Box 14286, Savannah, Georgia 31416, for Appellant.
Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Eric Christopher Peters, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Shalena Cook Jones, District Attorney, Eastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, 133 Montgomery Street, Suite 600, Savannah, Georgia 31401, Margaret Hinchey DeLeon, Amanda Makoid McCool, Chatham County District Attorney's Office, 133 Montgomery Street, Suite 600, PO Box 2309, Savannah, Georgia 31402, for Appellee.
Following a jury trial, Appellant Brian David Lewis was convicted of malice murder and concealing the death of another in connection with the beating death of Ronald Redding.1 Appellant claims that the evidence presented at his trial was insufficient to support his murder conviction, that the trial court erred by failing to charge the jury on voluntary manslaughter, that he was denied constitutionally effective assistance of counsel, and that the cumulative effect of trial counsel's errors prejudiced him. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
1. Appellant contends that the evidence presented at trial was constitutionally insufficient to sustain his murder conviction.2 When evaluating the sufficiency of evidence as a matter of constitutional due process, "the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." (Citation and emphasis omitted.) Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U. S. 307, 319 (III) (B), 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). "This Court does not reweigh evidence or resolve conflicts in testimony; instead, evidence is reviewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, with deference to the jury's assessment of the weight and credibility of the evidence." (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Hayes v. State , 292 Ga. 506, 506, 739 S.E.2d 313 (2013).
Viewed in this light, the evidence presented at trial showed that, at all relevant times, Appellant and his wife Stephanie Lewis lived with Stephanie's 66-year-old father, Redding, at a house in Chatham County. The relationship between the three was volatile and abusive. Katie Everette Craft, Redding's granddaughter, testified at trial that the living situation in the house between Redding, Appellant, and Stephanie was "toxic." On the morning of Redding's death, Redding told Craft that he was planning to evict Appellant and Stephanie from the house, that "he was in fear for his life," and "that he was going to kill [Appellant] before [Appellant] killed him." Jordan Tyler Everette, Redding's grandson, testified that Redding, Appellant, and Stephanie "were all really on medication" and that "drugs consumed" Appellant. He also testified that Appellant once called him and asked whether muriatic acid would dissolve a human body. Both Craft and Everett detailed the tumultuous relationship between Appellant, Redding, and Stephanie, which included both death threats and actual acts of violence against each other.
On October 13, 2016, the day before Redding's death, law enforcement officers responded to two separate 911 calls regarding domestic incidents between Appellant, Redding, and Stephanie. Officers testified that they had been called out to the Redding residence on numerous prior occasions in response to domestic incidents between Appellant, Redding, and Stephanie. During one of the response calls on October 13, Redding informed the responding officer that Appellant was stealing Redding's medications and accused Appellant of throwing a lamp at him. Redding also informed the responding officer that he was in the process of having Appellant and Stephanie evicted from the house.
On January 20, 2017, law enforcement officers arrived at Redding's home for a welfare check. Stephanie allowed officers to search the residence and a shed on the property. During their search of the residence, officers found various pill bottles, a summons to magistrate court for an eviction proceeding filed by Redding against Appellant, and a receipt from a home improvement store, dated January 12, 2017 at approximately 7:20 p.m., for two gallons of muriatic acid. In the shed, officers found a roll of plastic wrap, two unopened jugs containing muriatic acid, and a 50-gallon drum trashcan wrapped in multiple layers of duct tape and plastic wrap. Inside that trashcan, officers located Redding's decomposing body, a black trash bag, five bottles of bleach, a baseball bat, a shower pole, a towel, and other miscellaneous trash.
Appellant was immediately arrested and, during a search incident to arrest, officers discovered Appellant's wallet, which contained a note stating the following:
During his interview with law enforcement officers, Appellant admitted that he wrote the letter found in his wallet and stated that the incident described in the letter occurred on October 14, 2016.
Subsequent investigation revealed a surveillance video showing Appellant carrying two bottles of muriatic acid to the checkout counter of a home improvement store, the date and time of which corresponded with the receipt officers located inside Redding's house. An autopsy revealed that Redding died from multiple blows to the head with a blunt instrument. While the external examination of Redding's body revealed five injuries to the back of the head
and two to his eyes, an internal examination revealed evidence of eighteen injuries, including numerous rib, skull, and spine fractures and some dislocated joints. The medical examiner opined at trial that Redding's injuries were consistent with his being struck with a blunt force object, like a baseball bat, numerous times, and were not consistent with a single fall or being punched with a fist.
Appellant testified at trial and gave the following account of the incident. The initial confrontation took place on the front porch of the home on the morning of October 14, 2016. Redding told Appellant to pack up and leave before turning to go back inside. When Redding had trouble opening the front door, Appellant came up behind him and reached around Redding to open the door, at which point Redding pulled a knife from his bathrobe and tried to stab Appellant. Appellant then punched Redding in the face with his fist, which caused Redding to drop the knife. Redding then picked up the knife and moved toward Appellant, at which point Redding tripped, hit his head on the door threshold, went into convulsions, and never got back up. Appellant subsequently pulled Redding inside the home and checked on Stephanie to ensure she would not see her father in an injured state. After unsuccessfully attempting to administer CPR, Appellant placed Redding's body in a wheeled trashcan and moved the trashcan onto the carport next to the house.
Appellant testified that he was arrested on an unrelated charge that evening and, after spending four days in jail, he returned to the house and noticed that the trashcan was starting to smell. He wrapped the trashcan in plastic wrap and moved it from the carport into the shed behind the house. Appellant also admitted that he wrote checks to himself from Redding's bank account after Redding's death and continued to use Redding's credit cards after his death to purchase takeout food. Additionally, he testified that he purchased the bottles of muriatic acid and that he taped the trashcan containing Redding's body because he did not want anyone to find the body.3 Appellant maintained that he acted in self-defense.
Appellant alleges that the evidence was insufficient to support his murder conviction because the State failed to disprove his claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. However, based on the evidence presented at trial and recounted above, the jury was authorized to reject Appellant's theory of self-defense and find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of murder. See Jackson , supra, 443 U. S. at 319 (III) (B), 99 S.Ct. 2781. See also Morris v. State , 301 Ga. 702, 705 (1) (b), 804 S.E.2d 42 (2017) ) (citation omitted). Accordingly, the evidence was sufficient to support Appellant's murder conviction.
2. Appellant argues that the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury on voluntary manslaughter. The record shows that, prior to trial, both the State and the defense...
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