Preston v. State, S07A0371.

• Decision Date: 25 June 2007
• Docket Number: No. S07A0371.,S07A0371.
• Citation: 647 S.E.2d 260,282 Ga. 210
• Parties: PRESTON v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

282 Ga. 210

647 S.E.2d 260

PRESTON v. The STATE.

No. S07A0371.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

June 25, 2007.

Rodney Samuel Zell, Zell & Zell, P.C., Atlanta, for Appellant.

Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, Dist. Atty., Daniel James Quinn, Asst. Dist. Atty., Decatur, Thurbert E. Baker, Atty. Gen., David Allen Zisook, Asst. Atty. Gen., Department of Law, Atlanta, for Appellee.

BENHAM, Justice.

Andre Preston appeals from his conviction for two counts of malice murder, armed robbery, and possession of cocaine.¹ The evidence presented to the jury showed that in the early hours of January 1, 2002, a police officer in DeKalb County observed a car dragging something hanging out of the driver's door and followed the car. When he realized the object being dragged was a human body, the officer turned on his blue lights, but the car kept going. The driver eventually stopped on the median of I-20, exited the car carrying a gun and a bag, jumped over the median wall, ran across the highway, and entered the woods on the other side. In the abandoned car's passenger seat was Danyon Walker, dead of a gunshot wound to the head, with bags of cocaine in his lap. The body dragged by the car was that of Lenita Howard, the owner of the car, who had been shot three times, one shot having come from a .44 caliber weapon. Officers chasing the man who ran from the car saw him crossing a creek, but lost him in the woods. A canine unit called to the scene located a .44 caliber revolver, $565 cash, a man's clothes with cocaine in them, and a shoulder bag. An officer who positioned himself on the other side of the woods into which the man ran apprehended Preston as he came out of the woods wearing only underwear and bearing scratches on his body from underbrush. Preston gave a first statement in which he claimed he had gotten a ride from Walker, whom he knew from a youth detention center, and a woman; that while he was out of the car relieving himself, two men robbed the victims and shot them; and he escaped in their car. In his second statement, Preston claimed he met Walker to buy drugs from him, that when Walker pointed a gun at him, he shot Walker and then shot the woman when she reached for Walker's gun. At trial, Preston testified he met Walker to sell him drugs, shot Walker when he tried to rob Preston, shot the woman when she reached for Walker's gun, accidentally shot her again with Walker's gun, then drove away in her car even though she remained tangled in her seatbelt after falling out of the car when Preston opened the driver's door.

1. The evidence adduced at trial and summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find Preston guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the offenses of which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

2. Preston contends on appeal the statements he made during interrogation following his arrest were induced by a promise of benefit and the trial court's admission of the statements into evidence was error. "To make a confession admissible, it must have been made voluntarily, without being induced by another by the slightest hope of benefit or remotest fear of injury." OCGA § 24-3-50. "Generally, the reward of a lighter sentence for confessing is the `hope of benefit' to which [OCGA § 24-3-50] refers." Taylor v. State, 274 Ga. 269(2), 553 S.E.2d 598 (2001). The trial court put on the record at trial its findings that the statement introduced into evidence was voluntarily given without any hope of benefit. In the order denying Preston's motion for new trial, the trial court expanded on that ruling, noting that the interrogating officer never promised a lighter punishment in exchange for a confession or gave hope that a lighter punishment would result from a confession. A trial court's findings regarding the admissibility of an incriminating statement will be upheld on appeal unless clearly erroneous. Pittman v. State, 277 Ga. 475(2), 592 S.E.2d 72 (2004).

Conceding there were no explicit promises of a lighter sentence, Preston points to the interrogating officer's discussion of the death penalty and life without parole and the officer's statement that the district attorney based the charges brought on a recommendation from the police, and argues that the comments would be meaningless if they did not amount to a promise of a lighter sentence than death or life without parole. Our review of the record persuades us the interrogating officer's comments about punishment amounted to no more than an explanation of the seriousness of Preston's situation, and his requests to Preston to permit him to help were the equivalent of the officer's urging in Pittman v. State, supra, 277 Ga. at 478, 592 S.E.2d 72, for the defendant "to tell the truth so that [the officer] could `work this,'" and the officer's admonishment in State v. Roberts, 273 Ga. 514(3), 543 S.E.2d 725 (2001), for the defendant to be truthful because, "We can't help you like this." "[A]dmonitions to tell the truth will not invalidate a confession." Id. The trial court's finding that Preston's statement was not the result of a hope of benefit given by the interrogating officer was not clearly erroneous and is consequently upheld.

3. The trial court charged the jury on the State's burden to disprove the defense of justification and followed that charge with an instruction that "[w]here the defense of justification is offered, it is the duty of the jury to consider it along with all the testimony in this case, and if the evidence, taken as a whole, raises reasonable doubt in the mind of the jury of the defendant's guilt, then you should acquit him." Preston contends the latter instruction shifts the burden of proof onto him because it states that the evidence of justification he offered must itself raise reasonable doubt in order for the jury to acquit. The language of the charge is not susceptible of that interpretation because it does not limit the jury's consideration to the evidence offered by the defendant, but expressly directs consideration of the evidence as a whole. In addition, the charge has been held by this Court to be a correct statement of the law that does not shift the burden of proof to the defendant. Fox v. State, 238 Ga. 387(2), 233 S.E.2d 341 (1977).² Preston's reliance on Bishop v. State, 271 Ga. 291(2), 519 S.E.2d 206 (1999), to support his argument is misplaced since that case stands only for the proposition that a trial court must give, when requested, a charge that the State has the burden of disproving an affirmative defense, and does not condemn the addition of the charge involved here.

Notwithstanding our ruling that the charge as given did not shift the burden of proof to Preston regarding his justification defense, we take this opportunity to suggest to bench and bar that the charge not be given in the future. Though not burden-shifting, the charge could have the possibility of being confusing in a close case. The charge contains two truisms, that the jury must consider evidence of an affirmative defense and that the jury should acquit the defendant if the totality of the evidence raises a reasonable doubt of guilt, and serves no valuable purpose since those basic ideas are covered in other standard instructions. Since the instruction is so general, it could be seen to dilute the message of other more specific charges concerning affirmative defenses. Therefore, although the charge remains a correct statement of the law and does not serve to shift the burden of proof, it should no longer be given.

4. At trial, the State played for the jury a recording of telephone conversations Preston had with his mother while he was in jail, during which he discussed the murder weapon, whether the female victim actually threatened him, and how he should testify at trial. Preston complains that although he was aware the conversations were being recorded, he was never told the conversations could be used against him in court. Preston's invocation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), is unavailing since the warnings about self-incrimination required by that decision apply only to custodial interrogations. Although he was in custody, Preston's conversations with his mother were not the product of interrogation. See Arizona v. Mauro, 481 U.S. 520, 107 S.Ct. 1931, 95 L.Ed.2d 458 (1987) (recorded conversation with spouse in presence of police officer not product of interrogation); Cook v. State, 270 Ga. 820(2), 514 S.E.2d 657 (1999) (coercion proscribed by Miranda must be caused by the police).

Preston also asserts that use of the recorded statements violated his right to privacy. To invoke the privacy protection of the Fourth Amendment, Preston must establish a legitimate expectation of privacy. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19...