Partlow v. State

• Decision Date: 21 June 2018
• Docket Number: A18A0436,A18A0437
• Citation: 816 S.E.2d 474,346 Ga.App. 473
• Parties: PARTLOW v. The STATE. Hill v. The State.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

346 Ga.App. 473

816 S.E.2d 474

PARTLOW

v.The STATE.

Hill

v.The State.

A18A0436

A18A0437

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

June 21, 2018

Kelley A. Dial, Cartersville, for Appellant in A18A0436.

Chaunda Brock, Austell, for Appellant in A18A0437.

Rosemary M. Greene, Mark Joseph Boyd, for Appellee in A18A0436, A18A0437.

Reese, Judge.

A jury found Heath Partlow and Dennis Hill guilty of trafficking in cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.¹ Each man appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial, contending that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress and in denying his motion for a directed verdict. Partlow also contends that the trial court erred in rejecting his challenge to one of the State's jury strikes, while Hill argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a continuance. For the reasons set forth, infra, we affirm the court's orders.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict,² the record shows the following facts. At about 9:20 p.m. on September 12, 2012, Deputy Corey Tate with the Gordon County Sheriff's Office was parked in the median of Interstate 75, monitoring traffic. The deputy observed a Chevrolet Impala pass by and noticed that the tag light on the back of the car was not functioning. After conducting a traffic stop, the deputy walked to the window on the passenger's side. He immediately smelled a strong odor of freshly sprayed cologne. The driver, Partlow, gave the deputy his driver's license and insurance card.³ The deputy asked Partlow to exit the car and walk with him to the back so the deputy could show him that there was no functioning tag light. Partlow agreed that the light was not working and told the deputy that "it must have just went out." The deputy told Partlow that he was going to write him a warning citation for the tag light violation. When the deputy asked him for the name of the passenger, Partlow responded that the passenger was his distant cousin, "James Jackson," and that they had been driving from Cartersville in Bartow County.

As Deputy Tate was writing the warning citation, he smelled the odor of burnt marijuana coming from Partlow. While Partlow waited at the front of the patrol car, the deputy walked over to speak to Partlow's passenger. The passenger told the officer that he did not have any identification with him, but he said that his name was "Rodney Hill," that his birthdate was December 18, 1964, and that he and Partlow had been driving from Atlanta. Because the two men had made conflicting statements, Deputy Tate decided that further investigation was warranted.

In the meantime, two troopers with the Georgia State Patrol ("GSP") and another deputy with the Gordon County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene of the traffic stop. One of the troopers approached the car and asked the passenger to exit and walk to the front of the patrol car to stand with Partlow. According to the trooper, the passenger became upset when Deputy Tate said he was going to get his drug-detection canine from his patrol car. Deputy Tate walked around the car with the dog, which alerted at the front passenger-side door.

Deputy Tate told Partlow and the passenger that he was going to search the car. Immediately after Deputy Tate and the other Gordon County deputy started searching the car, Deputy Tate observed a black bag and a pair of disposable rubber gloves on the front passenger seat. The bag was pushed toward the back of the seat, down into the junction between the passenger seat's back and the seat itself. Inside the bag were eight individually packaged bags of suspected cocaine, approximately one ounce each. The officers searched the rest of the car and found, among other things, digital scales in the glove box and a pair of disposable gloves, but no more drugs.

Deputy Tate walked toward Partlow and the passenger in front of the patrol car and told them that they were under arrest. The passenger suddenly bolted and ran away, crossing six lanes of Interstate 75. The two GSP troopers started chasing him, but they had to abandon the chase when one of the troopers was injured. Over the next few hours, officers with the Gordon County Sheriff's Office, the Calhoun Police Department, and the GSP searched for the passenger, but they did not find him. Meanwhile, Deputy Tate arrested Partlow at the scene, and the State indicted him for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, trafficking in cocaine, and failure to have a tag light.⁴

Over the next several weeks, Deputy Tate and investigators in his office attempted to identify Partlow's passenger by checking State computer records based on information obtained during the traffic stop and by looking at pictures of men named "James Jackson," "Rodney Hill," and "James Hill." According to Deputy Tate, however, none of the men resembled the passenger enough to investigate further. Then, in June 2014, Deputy Tate saw Dennis Hill in Tennessee and recognized him as the passenger based on a scar on Hill's left cheek, his gold tooth, his speech pattern, the tattoo on his forearm, and his unusual height, which was approximately 6 feet, 5 to 6 inches. Tate later reviewed the dashcam video from his patrol car to confirm that Hill and the passenger had the same speech pattern. Investigators also learned that Hill was the brother of Partlow's ex-wife, and that she and Hill had a brother with the same name ("Rodney Hill") that Partlow's passenger had given Deputy Tate during the traffic stop. Hill also had the same birthdate that the passenger had given to Deputy Tate (December 18), although he was born in 1966, not 1964, the year given by the passenger. Based upon this information, the State filed a superseding indictment against Partlow and Hill jointly, charging them both with trafficking in cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

At trial, evidence showed that the Gordon County Sheriff's Office seized the cocaine found in the car Partlow was driving and sent it to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Division of Forensic Sciences (the "State Crime Lab") to be analyzed. The contents of each of the bags tested positive for cocaine. The total weight of the cocaine was 221.24 grams, plus or minus 0.08 grams, and it had a purity of at least 36.875 percent. Deputy Tate testified that the total amount of cocaine was "a lot" more than one would normally have for personal use. Another Gordon County deputy agreed, testifying that a normal amount of cocaine for personal use was about one to three grams at a time and that the street value of the cocaine was about $100 per gram. Further, Deputy Tate testified that the cocaine was packaged in a manner that was intended for "distribution purposes." Deputy Tate also noted that digital scales, such as those found in the car, were often used to weigh cocaine before it was sold, and that drug dealers often wore gloves while packaging the cocaine to keep their fingerprints off the bags.

After hearing this evidence, the jury found both Partlow and Hill guilty of trafficking in cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.⁵ The trial court denied their motions for a new trial, and these appeals followed.

On appeal from a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and an appellant no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence. This Court determines whether the evidence is sufficient under the standard of Jackson v. Virginia ,⁶ and does not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility. Any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence are 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, we must uphold the jury's verdict.⁷

"The standard of Jackson v. Virginia⁸ is met if the evidence is sufficient for any rational trier of fact to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime charged."⁹ With these guiding principles in mind, we turn now to the Appellants' specific claims of error.

Case No. A18A0436

1. Partlow contends that the trial court erred in denying his Batson¹⁰ challenge to the State's use of a peremptory strike against the only African-American person in the jury array.

The analysis of a Batson challenge involves a three-step process: (1) the opponent of a peremptory challenge must make a prima facie showing of racial discrimination; (2) the proponent of the strike must then provide a race-neutral explanation for the strike; and (3) the court must decide whether the opponent of the strike has proven the proponent's discriminatory intent.¹¹

"The ultimate burden of persuasion regarding racial motivation of peremptory strikes rests with and never shifts from the opponent of the strike. Therefore, in order to prevail on his Batson challenge, [the defendant] had the burden of proving that the State engaged in purposeful discrimination in the exercise of its peremptory strikes."¹²

The trial transcript shows that, after excusing the jurors for the night at the end of the first day of trial, the trial court recounted, for the record, a bench conference that had taken place during jury selection. According to the court, the State had used one of its peremptory jury strikes against Juror No. 1, the only African-American in the 42-person jury array. Partlow's counsel asserted a Batson challenge to the State's peremptory strike. The trial court noted that, in response to the Batson motion, the State had the burden of giving a race-neutral reason for the strike. The prosecutor told the court that he believed Juror No. 1 had given an untruthful answer during voir dire by failing to raise her hand or otherwise affirmatively respond when the prospective jurors were asked whether any of them had previously been arrested for anything more serious than a traffic offense. The prosecutor explained that he had checked the criminal histories of the prospective jurors prior to trial...