Lumpkin v. State
| Decision Date | 28 September 2020 |
| Docket Number | S20A0734,S20A0879 |
| Citation | 849 S.E.2d 175,310 Ga. 139 |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
| Parties | LUMPKIN v. STATE. Green v. State. |
Wayne L. Burnaine, 735 Scenic Highway, Suite A, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30046, Attorneys for the Appellant in S20A0734.
Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Matthew David O'Brien, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Daniel J. Porter, District Attorney, Lee Franklin Tittsworth, A.D.A., Samuel Richard d'Entremont, A.D.A., Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30046, Attorneys for the Appellee in S20A0734.
Jessica Ruth Towne, Clark & Towne, P.C., 1755 North Brown Road, Suite 200, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, Attorneys for the Appellant in S20A0879.
Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Matthew David O'Brien, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Daniel J. Porter, District Attorney, Lee Franklin Tittsworth, A.D.A., Samuel Richard d'Entremont, A.D.A., Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30046, Attorneys for the Appellee in S20A0879.
A Gwinnett County jury found Anthony Lumpkin and Eddie Green guilty of murder and other offenses in connection with the shooting death of Nicholas Jackson II. Both appellants argue that the trial court erred by denying their motions to suppress evidence seized during a traffic stop. In addition, Lumpkin challenges the sufficiency of the evidence presented against him on the armed robbery count and the felony murder count predicated on armed robbery, and Green argues that the trial court erred by not admitting certain evidence pursuant to OCGA § 24-8-804. Because each of these enumerations of error fail, we affirm in part, but we also vacate in part to correct a sentencing error with respect to Lumpkin.1
1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence presented at trial showed the following. In September 2011, Kevell Ross contacted his step-brother, Timothy Johnson, requesting his assistance in robbing a house in Norcross that belonged to a drug dealer who supplied cocaine to Ross. The man who owned the house, Nicholas Jackson, Sr., lived there with his wife and four children, who included Nicholas Jackson II, the victim. Later that fall, Ross met with Johnson, Darrez Chandler, and Green to discuss the robbery. The group initially planned to rob the house in December 2011. They recruited other individuals to assist but decided to abandon the robbery when they saw a car with a woman and child inside drive up to the house.2
On February 2, 2012, Chandler, Johnson, and Green decided to attempt the robbery again, and Lumpkin, Jason Dozier, Michael Davis, and Reco West were recruited to assist. The group planned that Chandler and Johnson would remain in their vehicles while Dozier, Lumpkin, Davis, and West would initially enter the home. Green was to join them inside later to assist in the search for money. Davis, West, Dozier, and Lumpkin were to be armed; Green was not.
Before the robbery, Lumpkin instructed Green to pick up Davis and West. Green relayed the instructions to Johnson, and, at Green's request, Johnson drove Green to pick up Davis and West in a silver van that Green had provided. Johnson then drove Green, Davis, and West in the van to the house in Norcross. Meanwhile, Chandler separately drove Lumpkin and Dozier in his car, stopping at a store at Lumpkin's direction to purchase duct tape on the way "just in case" someone was home during the robbery.
As Johnson's group got close to the house, Green called Chandler's group, informing them that he wanted to show the house to the men in his van, after which Johnson's group circled the house in the van, then parked in a nearby parking lot to wait for Chandler's group. While there, Green called Chandler's group several times to check on their status. After Chandler's group arrived, Dozier and Lumpkin got into the silver van, which then proceeded to the house. Chandler drove to and parked in a different parking lot nearby.
The van arrived at the house, and Johnson noticed a vehicle parked in the driveway. He expressed concern to the others in the van about going ahead with the robbery with the potential for women or children to be in the house. Lumpkin replied that "we didn't come up here for nothing" and that Johnson should not "start that s***." Green then waved at Johnson, indicating that he should pull the van into the driveway. Lumpkin then said that he was "going to smash this b**** in" and that the others should follow him into the house.
Davis, West, Dozier, and Lumpkin approached the entrance to the home's basement on foot. Green and Johnson waited in the van, and Green instructed Johnson to pull away from the house and circle the block. Johnson and Green heard gunfire just as they arrived back at the house, and they decided to remain in the van. Davis, West, Dozier, and Lumpkin, who were still armed, exited the house and got into the van, which Johnson then drove away.
Lumpkin had called Chandler as the four men walked up to the house, and Chandler stayed on the line with him while the group went inside. Over the phone, Chandler could hear a door being kicked in, followed by commotion and gunshots. Chandler then heard Lumpkin say, "This man dead." The phone hung up, but Chandler called Lumpkin back. Lumpkin told him, "the man dead."
While in the van, Lumpkin told Johnson and Green that someone had been shot. Lumpkin told them,
At the time of the incident, Jackson's sister, Nikia Jackson, was in her bedroom on the third floor. She heard "popping" noises and went downstairs because she thought Jackson was bouncing a basketball. When she got to the main floor of the house, she heard people yelling and a vehicle's tires screeching. Out the window, she could see a silver van leaving the driveway with five men inside.
She then began looking for Jackson, and eventually found him lying unresponsive on the ground of his basement bedroom, behind his bedroom door. She observed holes in his bedroom door and saw that Jackson's bedroom was in disarray. Nikia called 911 and reported that her brother had been shot. She reported that five or six males had driven away from the house in a silver van.
Emergency medical personnel responded to the house, where they found Jackson unresponsive. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed that Jackson died from a single gunshot wound
to the chest. The medical examiner recovered a projectile during the autopsy, which was provided to law enforcement.
Shortly after the shooting, a Norcross police officer was conducting a traffic stop less than a mile from the Jacksons’ house. He was notified about a call reporting a burglary. Minutes later, after the officer concluded the stop, he began driving toward the Jacksons’ house. While driving, he received updated information from dispatch indicating that the incident involved a home invasion and shooting and that five subjects had run from the house to a silver van. About a minute later, the officer spotted a silver van at a nearby intersection. The officer then pulled in behind it and activated his patrol car's blue lights. He then called for backup, indicating that he believed he was behind the van identified in the call.
The men in the van saw the patrol car, and Davis, West, Dozier, and Lumpkin told Johnson, who was still driving, not to pull over and to drive faster. They then began handing Green their guns, one of which Green threw out the window.
Johnson stopped the van at the next intersection, but as the officer exited his patrol car, Johnson made a right turn. The officer reentered his car and tapped his siren twice in order to get Johnson's attention. Johnson then made another right turn at the next street and stopped. The officer approached the van and held its occupants at gunpoint while awaiting backup. Green then hit a button that opened the van's back door. West and Lumpkin fled from the vehicle on foot and hid in bushes nearby. They were apprehended by other officers shortly thereafter.
Inside and around the van, law enforcement officers located four firearms, a ski mask, a stocking cap, several sets of latex gloves, duct tape, and a laptop belonging to Jackson's mother. They also collected several of the men's cell phones. In addition, they found Lumpkin's cell phone and a ski mask in the bushes where he and West had been hiding and found a second ski mask and Lumpkin's shoes nearby. After they were apprehended by law enforcement, gunshot residue was found on the hands of Lumpkin, West, Davis, and Dozier.
At the house, investigators found a shoeprint on the basement door that was consistent with Lumpkin's shoe. They also found bullet holes on the outside of Jackson's basement bedroom door as well as corresponding defects in various locations in the bedroom. Investigators located shell casings and projectiles in various areas in the basement, which investigators later determined had been fired from two of the firearms found in the silver van. Investigators also determined that one of those firearms had fired the bullet recovered from Jackson's body.
During a custodial interview, after receiving Miranda warnings,3 Green claimed that some people had approached him and Johnson requesting a ride to the Mall of Georgia from Atlanta. Green said that he did not know any of their names but obliged their request because they offered him gas money. Green also told investigators that ...
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