Miller v. State

• Decision Date: 09 September 2019
• Docket Number: A19A0990
• Citation: 351 Ga.App. 757,833 S.E.2d 142
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
• Parties: MILLER v. The STATE.

351 Ga.App. 757

833 S.E.2d 142

MILLER

v.The STATE.

A19A0990

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

September 9, 2019

Stanley W. Schoolcraft III, Stockbridge, for appellant.

Tracy Graham Lawson, District Attorney, Elizabeth A. Baker, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.

Dillard, Presiding Judge.

Following trial, a jury convicted Harold Miller of one count of theft by taking, four counts of aggravated assault, one count of aggravated battery, one count of reckless conduct, two counts of obstruction of a law-enforcement officer, one count of fleeing from a law-enforcement officer, and one count of theft by receiving. On appeal, Miller challenges the sufficiency of the evidence as to several of his convictions and further contends that the trial court erred in denying his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. For the reasons set forth infra , we affirm.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict,¹ the evidence shows that on October 3, 2014, Audrelia Harris and her mother drove to a repossession impound lot in Forest Park to reclaim her vehicle, which had been taken there. After Harris paid the fee, an employee retrieved her vehicle from inside the fenced-in lot and parked it—with the engine still running—next to her mother's vehicle just outside the gate. And while Harris continued speaking to one of the impound lot's employees at a kiosk near the gate, her mother noticed a man—later identified as Miller—walking on the side of the road toward where she was parked. Then, upon reaching Harris's still-running vehicle, Miller jumped into the driver's seat and sped away while the mother yelled and honked the horn to alert her daughter and the impound employee of what was transpiring. Immediately, the owner of the impound lot and one of his employees jumped into the owner's tow truck and gave chase.

Within a few minutes, the two pursuers noticed that Miller had stopped at a red light, at which point, the owner blocked Miller's path with the tow truck. The employee then exited the truck and ran to the driver's side window of Harris's vehicle to confront Miller. But Miller immediately threw the vehicle into reverse, forcing the employee to jump onto the hood to avoid being hit. Miller then drove forward, swerved back and forth in order to throw the employee off the hood (which he quickly succeeded in doing), and then sped away. Subsequently, the owner drove his employee to a nearby fire station, where emergency medical technicians began treating him for injuries to his elbow, knees, and back. And while there, the impound-lot owner contacted police and one of his other employees, who he then had use a computer program to track Harris's vehicle via a previously installed GPS tracker. With this assistance, police officers tracked the vehicle to a motel on Tara Boulevard, where Miller had apparently abandoned it.

Shortly thereafter, based on surveillance photos from security cameras at the impound lot and motel, as well as interviews with a few women who had been staying at another motel frequented by the man ultimately identified as Miller, a detective with the Forest Park Police Department determined that the suspect in the theft of Harris's vehicle went by the street nickname of "Bull" and was possibly named Harold Turner. Consequently, the detective obtained an arrest warrant for Harold Turner and passed the information, including a physical description, on to the Clayton County Sheriff's Office.

On October 10, 2014, one week after the theft of Harris's vehicle, a Clayton County sheriff's deputy received information from a confidential informant that Bull was at an abandoned house on Tara Road. So, at around 8:30 that evening, four uniformed deputies—driving in two separate marked vehicles—went to the house, intending to make an arrest. Approaching from two different directions, Deputies Manning and Kearns parked just south of the house, while Deputies Hogan and Montford parked to the north. And given the time of night and the fact that the home was abandoned and had no lighting, the deputies were forced to use flashlights as they approached the house via two gravel driveways separated by approximately a few yards. Shortly after the deputies began their approach, Deputies Manning and Kearns saw a white male—who fit the description of Bull and was later identified as Miller—run toward the back of the property where a white van was parked. Deputy Manning yelled, "Sheriff's Office! Show me your hands!" But Miller, ignoring the deputy's command while looking straight at him, jumped into the driver's seat of the van and started the engine. Deputy Manning yelled at Miller to exit the vehicle, but instead, Miller began driving toward the two deputies, who drew their weapons and ducked behind a nearby tree as the van then veered past them to their right.

Meanwhile, separated from Deputies Manning and Kearns by only a few yards but in nearly complete darkness, Deputies Hogan and Montford heard Deputy Manning identify himself as a sheriff and order someone to stop but could not initially see to whom the order was directed. A moment later, they heard an engine revving up and tires screeching. As both Deputies Hogan and Montford drew their weapons, they saw a white van accelerating directly toward them. Fearing he could not fire his weapon without hitting Deputy Montford, who was slightly ahead of him, Deputy Hogan dove out of the way as the van bore down on them. But Deputy Montford fired several shots at Miller, with one hitting him, and then dove out of the van's way, avoiding being struck by mere inches. As the van sped off, the deputies notified dispatch that shots had been fired and issued a BOLO, before returning to their vehicles in an attempt to follow Miller.

A few miles away, Sergeant Arnzen—another Clayton County sheriff's deputy—was on patrol in a marked vehicle when he heard the dispatch that shots had been fired and the BOLO for the white van. And already aware that the deputies had planned to execute the arrest warrant for Bull at the Tara Road address that night, Sergeant Arnzen headed in that direction. Then, less than two miles away from the house, Sergeant Arnzen spotted a white van driving slowly and weaving. The van turned on a dead-end street and, upon reaching the cul-de-sac, drove into the yard of a home, nearly hitting the house before coming to a stop. As Sergeant Arnzen exited his patrol vehicle and approached the van, he noticed that the driver matched the description for Bull. Sergeant Arnzen then drew his weapon and loudly shouted, "Sheriff's Office! Stop the vehicle! Show me your hands!" Miller ignored the sergeant's commands and instead continued trying to drive through the yard until the front end of the van pushed up against some tall shrubs. Sergeant Arnzen repeated his orders to stop the vehicle, but Miller again refused to comply, responding, "Fuck you, I'll hit you too." Miller then threw the van in reverse, at which point, Sergeant Arnzen holstered his weapon and dove into the van through the open driver's side window. He then shoved Miller over, and—with his legs hanging outside the window—forced the van's gearshift into park. Once the van stopped, Sergeant Arnzen climbed out of the vehicle, drew his weapon, and held Miller at gunpoint until the other deputies arrived.

Upon the arrival of backup, Sergeant Arnzen requested an ambulance in light of Miller's gunshot wound

, and the ambulance then transported Miller to a local hospital. In the aftermath of Miller's arrest, he admitted that he was known as "Bull," but the deputies determined his identity was Harold Miller rather than Turner. The deputies also learned that the white van belonged to the owner of a local restaurant and had been stolen earlier that day when the owner's son left the keys in the ignition while unloading groceries.

Thereafter, the State charged Miller, via indictment, with one count of theft by taking (relating to the theft of Harris's vehicle), and one count each of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and reckless conduct (all relating to the impound-lot employee's attempt to thwart the theft of Harris's vehicle). In the same indictment, the State also charged Miller with two counts of obstruction of a law-enforcement officer, one count relating to his refusal to obey Deputy Manning's commands and the other relating to his refusal to obey Sergeant Arnzen's; five counts of aggravated assault upon a law-enforcement officer (relating to his attempts to hit each of the deputies with the van); one count of fleeing from a law-enforcement officer (relating to his refusal to obey Sergeant Arnzen's order to stop the van); and one count of theft by receiving (relating to the stolen white van).

The case ultimately proceeded to trial, during which the State submitted the evidence noted above. In addition, the State called as witnesses the two women who lived at the motel where Miller often stayed. Both women identified Miller as the person they knew by the nickname "Bull." And one of the women further testified that, shortly after the October 3, 2014 theft of Harris's vehicle, Miller bragged about stealing a car and someone trying to stop him by jumping onto the vehicle's hood. Then, at the conclusion of the trial, the jury found Miller guilty on the count of theft by taking, four counts of aggravated assault (specifically those relating to the impound employee, Deputies Montford and Hogan, and Sergeant Arnzen), the count of aggravated battery as to the impound-lot employee, the count of reckless conduct, the two counts of obstruction of a law-enforcement officer, the count of fleeing from a law-enforcement officer, and the count of theft by receiving. The jury found Miller not guilty on the counts of aggravated assault as to Deputies Manning and Kearns.

Afterward, Miller obtained new counsel and filed a motion for new trial, in which he argued, inter alia , that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. The...