Patterson v. State

• Decision Date: 30 June 2022
• Docket Number: S22A0413
• Parties: PATTERSON v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

314 Ga. 167

875 S.E.2d 771

PATTERSON

v.The STATE.

S22A0413

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: June 30, 2022

Nyonnohweah Snami Seekie, Seekie Law Firm, PO Box 447, Macon, Georgia 31201, for Appellant.

Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Ashleigh Dene Headrick, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Daniel Patrick Bibler, Anita Reynolds Howard, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, 661 Mulberry Street, Macon, Georgia 31201, for Appellee.

LaGrua, Justice.

Appellant James Patterson was convicted of felony murder in connection with the beating death of Jeffrey Burke.¹ In this appeal, Appellant contends that: (1) he received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel; (2) the trial court erred in permitting a witness to be impeached under OCGA § 24-6-609 ("Rule 609"); and (3) a new trial is warranted due to newly discovered evidence. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.

1. The evidence at trial showed that on June 17, 2018, Appellant's mother and stepfather hosted a cookout attended by Appellant and approximately 20 family members and friends. Jeremiah Thomas drove Burke, Arthur Ross, and Frances Simmons to the cookout in his truck.

According to Ross, after a few hours, Burke and Appellant began arguing in the front yard about who was going to pay for the alcohol. Simmons came out of the house with to-go plates, and Ross asked Burke to take the to-go plates to Thomas's truck because they were preparing to leave the cookout. Simmons then returned inside. Ross then witnessed Appellant hit Burke. Burke "spun around and fell," and Appellant and another man began "kicking him and stomping him." Burke was "l[y]ing down, flat on his face, on his stomach, right there by [Thomas's] truck, on the concrete." Ross testified that Appellant then "went back up towards the street and c[a]me back down, had his pistol in his hand, and went to talking, y'all get on away from here before I kill him and all that." Burke then sent someone to retrieve Thomas and Simmons from inside the house.

In contrast to Ross's testimony, Appellant's three cousins—Melissa Rozier-Fleming, Darrell Rozier, and Kevin Rozier—testified that Burke stumbled down the stairs, fell forward, and hit Thomas's truck. They did not witness anyone assault Burke. Rozier-Fleming and Kevin further testified that they did not see Appellant with a gun that day.²

Simmons and Thomas testified that when they came outside, they saw Burke lying on the ground and bleeding from his face. Thomas asked Burke what happened, but Burke did not answer. They helped Burke into Thomas's truck. Ross called Burke's wife, Beverly Burke, but was unable to reach her. Ross eventually spoke to Burke's brother, Johnny Burke, who said to bring Burke home. At Burke's home, an ambulance was waiting, and it transported him to the hospital. Beverly testified that she asked Ross, Thomas, and Johnny how Burke was injured, and "they said that he fell."

Burke's doctor at the hospital testified: "The report that I got was that [Burke] had sustained significant facial and neck trauma. They weren't sure how. They thought, possibly, that he got hit by a car, but there was really no clear indication of what had happened, other than he was hurt." The doctor further testified that Burke had numerous injuries to his head

, neck, and spine that were consistent with both "being struck by an automobile" and "being kicked repeatedly about the head and body." Burke had three surgeries to treat his spinal injuries, but his lower extremities were paralyzed.

Beverly testified that when she visited Burke in the hospital, he told her: "He had fixed him a plate to take home and ... somebody hit him ... came up behind him and hit him in the eye with a butt of a gun and he fell to the ground." He also said, "[T]wo or three people [were] kicking him."

A law enforcement officer reported to the hospital to take Burke's statement, and the encounter was recorded by the officer's body camera. The recording shows Burke lying in the hospital bed and two male visitors sitting in chairs. The officer testified that one of the visitors was Ross but did not name the other visitor. The officer asked Burke what happened, and he stated that he put two to-go plates in the truck, and "the next thing [he] kn[ew]," he was "blacked out." After Burke described his injuries, one of the visitors in the room said something inaudible. Burke then stated that he "can't say how [the assailant] hit [him]."³ Rather, he "t[hought] what [the assailant] did–[the assailant] got mad [be]cause [the assailant] wanted to bet [him] ... wanted to bet on the shots of liquor," and Burke refused. Burke continued that "[the assailant] got mad" and "was drinking a big old bottle of wine," and Burke told the assailant that he "[did not] want to bet." The assailant then "knocked him out" while he was putting the to-go plates in the truck. The officer testified that a different law enforcement officer obtained the arrest warrant for Appellant.

Johnny testified that the day after Burke's assault, he saw Appellant and asked, "Did you see what happened, what happened to my brother?" Appellant responded, "Is that your brother?" When Johnny stated, "Yeah, that's my brother," Appellant said, "Well, you need to tell your brother to keep his damn mouth shut."

Approximately two months after the assault, Burke was released from the hospital in a wheelchair and neck brace and with a catheter for urination. Burke's doctor testified that the type of paralysis that Burke had could result in a "neurogenic bladder

"—meaning the person lacks bladder control requiring the use of a catheter for urination. The doctor further testified that the failure to maintain a catheter could result in pyelonephritis also known as a kidney infection. He testified that he believed the nurses provide discharge instructions to patients on how to maintain the catheter and observe it for signs of infection.

Beverly testified that she received training on how to empty the catheter and clean it. She further testified that she cleaned the catheter every time she emptied it and every time she gave Burke a bath, so it was cleaned "at least ... twice a day."

Several weeks after Burke returned home, his daughter discovered him slumped over, not moving. Beverly attempted CPR, which was unsuccessful. She then called 911, but the EMTs were unable to resuscitate Burke. Beverly testified that all of Burke's injuries and medical issues were a result of the June 2018 assault.

According to the medical examiner, Burke's medical records showed that he was a victim of a physical assault; he was diagnosed with a traumatic rupture

of the right eye, surrounding lacerations of tears of the skin around this eye, skull fractures around this eye, a spinal cord injury of the neck, and fractures of the first three cervical vertebrae. She stated that Burke's injuries were "very localized, which would not be consistent with being struck by a vehicle." Additionally, when asked whether Burke's injuries were "consistent with ... someone stumbl[ing] and hit[ting] their head on a truck," the medical examiner testified that she "would expect in that case [that] there would be injuries at the site of impact, either facial or skull injuries, but the severe injuries that involved, also, the entirety of [Burke's] cervical or neck vertebrae in the spinal cord would not be consistent with it." She testified that instead Burke's injuries were consistent with someone who had been repeatedly kicked in the head and body.

The medical examiner also testified that Burke's medical records showed he had surgery to stabilize the cervical vertebrae and to relieve pressure on the spinal cord due to "decreased movement of the upper and lower extremities." And she noted during the autopsy that he had "evidence of surgical hardware involving the cervical vertebrae or the neck vertebrae." Additionally, Burke's catheter was in-place when he arrived at the medical examiner's office. The medical examiner testified that Burke's medical records showed that he had a "dysfunctioning bladder," meaning that his "bladder would not contract properly on its own in order for him to urinate." She found evidence of a bacterial infection in both of Burke's kidneys and his bladder, and there was evidence of decreased kidney function. The medical examiner testified that Burke's cause of death was "complications of the acute pyelonephritis

,^[4

^] due to the urinary retention, due to the spinal cord injury, which was due to an assault," and that Burke's paralysis directly and materially contributed to the pyelonephritis because it was the cause of the urinary retention.

2. Appellant contends he received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel in multiple ways. To prevail on these claims, Appellant must demonstrate that his trial counsel's performance was professionally deficient and that he was prejudiced by this deficient performance. See Sullivan v. State , 308 Ga. 508, 510 (2), 842 S.E.2d 5 (2020) (citing Strickland v. Washington , 466 U.S. 668, 687 (III), 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) ). To establish deficient performance, Appellant must show that trial counsel performed his duties in an objectively unreasonable way, considering all the circumstances and in the light of prevailing professional norms. See id. Establishing deficient performance

is no easy showing, as the law recognizes a strong presumption that counsel performed reasonably, and [Appellant] bears the burden of overcoming this presumption. To carry this burden, he must show that no reasonable lawyer would have done what his lawyer did, or would have failed to do what his lawyer did not. In particular, decisions regarding trial tactics and strategy may form the basis for an ineffectiveness claim only if they were so patently unreasonable that no competent attorney would have followed such a course.

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