Ricketts v. State, S02A1454.
| Decision Date | 24 March 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. S02A1454.,S02A1454. |
| Citation | 276 Ga. 466,579 S.E.2d 205 |
| Parties | RICKETTS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Brian Steel, Atlanta, for appellant.
Philip C. Smith, Dist. Atty., Penny A. Penn, Asst. Dist. Atty., Thurbert E. Baker, Atty Gen., Jennifer S. Gill, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee. HINES, Justice.
Gregory Ricketts appeals his convictions for the malice murder of his wife, Sharla Ricketts, and for intercepting communications which invade the privacy of another. He claims that his convictions must be reversed because his motion to suppress was improperly denied; venue was not pled in the bill of indictment; closing argument was improperly limited to one hour; trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the one-hour limitation of closing argument; the trial court's instruction to the jury was erroneous; he was not present at a critical stage of the trial; and the trial court communicated with the jury foreperson to the exclusion of the other jurors. Finding that Ricketts's claims of error fail to provide a basis for the reversal of his convictions, we affirm.1
The evidence construed in favor of the verdicts showed the following: Gregory Ricketts ("Ricketts") and Sharla Ricketts were married in August 1994. Ricketts was part owner of an adult entertainment club in Athens, and met Sharla when she was employed as a waitress at the club. After the two were married, Sharla went to work as a dancer in an adult entertainment club in Cobb County. The two had financial problems, and Ricketts tried a number of business ventures. Sharla became disgruntled with their circumstances, including their involvement in adult entertainment.
Several times, beginning in mid-December 1995, Ricketts discussed with his friend Green that he and Sharla were having marital difficulties. Ricketts told Green that he had secretly placed a recording device on their home telephone and that Sharla was having an affair with a man named "Sam." Ricketts and Sharla discussed her affair with "Sam," as well as separation. Green spoke with Ricketts after Christmas, and it was Green's understanding that Sharla had moved out of the couple's home and was staying with relatives until a decision about the marriage was made. In a subsequent conversation, Ricketts indicated to Green that he thought they were going to work things out. Ricketts continued the clandestine telephone recordings.
On January 4, 1996, Ricketts and Sharla spent the evening together. Earlier that day Ricketts had telephoned Sharla's mother and discussed the extramarital affair; he told the mother that he could not "control" Sharla. Ricketts admittedly was angry with Sharla. Ricketts brought his .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol into the house.
At 11:53 p.m. on January 4, 1996, a neighbor of the Rickettses heard gunshots and saw that the lights were on at the Rickettses' house. Around midnight Green received a telephone page from the Rickettses' home. He returned the page and Ricketts told him that he had shot Sharla; Ricketts stated that "he could not go to prison and that he was a corpse." Green checked out of the hotel where he was staying, and telephoned the Rickettses' home again at about 1:30 a.m. Ricketts was at the home with his best friend whom Ricketts had telephoned right after the shooting. In the discussion, Green determined that the police had not been called. Green drove to the Rickettses' home, notifying the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office while he was on the way.
A detective with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to the Rickettses' home about 2:00 a.m.; other officers were already there and Ricketts was in the back seat of a patrol car. Sharla's body was lying on the floor in the house, close to a dining table, with her head pointing toward a kitchen countertop. She had been shot five times and died as a result of multiple gunshot injuries. Some of the bullets entered Sharla as she was standing with her arms in front of her. One bullet entered her right arm, exited the other side, and reentered her chest. She was shot twice in the left arm. She also sustained a gunshot wound to the left side of the head; Sharla was shot while "the muzzle of the gun was against [her] head." The wounds to the arms and upper body would not have caused a loss of consciousness, but the shot to the left side of the head would have led to an immediate loss of consciousness. Two bullets were removed from Sharla's body during the autopsy.
A .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol was on the table in the Rickettses' dining room. An examination of the pistol revealed one round in the chamber and four in the magazine. There was an apparent bullet hole in the handset of the telephone located on the kitchen counter. Eight shell casings were located in the house. Four bullets were retrieved from the dining room wall. Based on the location of the casings, bullets, and bullet holes, it was determined that Ricketts walked toward Sharla, shooting as he passed the counter. The .380 caliber pistol found at the scene fired the bullets that were recovered from Sharla's body and also fired the projectiles retrieved at the scene. A pouch for a small pistol and a magazine for a .380 caliber pistol were found in the Rickettses' bedroom at the side of the bed. Ricketts routinely carried a Browning .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and stipulated to its ownership at trial.
At trial, Ricketts admitted shooting Sharla on the evening of January 4, 1996. He testified that he had made a romantic dinner for Sharla who arrived later that evening; the couple had sex and then Ricketts began trying to get Sharla to admit to her continued contact with "Sam"; when Sharla refused, Ricketts told her he knew about the voice mail contacts with "Sam" and that he knew the voice mail access code; Sharla "just started screaming" and "ranting"; she got out of bed and put on her clothes; she said derogatory things to Ricketts; Ricketts went into the bathroom and opened Sharla's travel bag; it was "full of business cards and condoms"; Ricketts asked Sharla why she had condoms in her bag, and she responded that it was none of his business, that she could have sex with whomever she wanted to, and that she was going to call "Sam"; Sharla "just walked away and grabbed the phone"; and "then she was dead." Ricketts claimed that he "didn't remember the screams ... didn't remember the blood ... didn't remember any of it." A warranted search of the Rickettses' residence revealed the secreted recording device and the audiotapes of Sharla's telephone calls. Sharla was retrieving her voice mail messages when the shooting began. Consequently, the audiotape located inside the device not only recorded Sharla retrieving her messages but also the sounds of her exchange with Ricketts, the fatal shooting, and Ricketts's telephone call to his best friend telling him about the shooting. The audiotape was played for the jury.
1. The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Ricketts guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the malice murder of his wife and intercepting communications which invade the privacy of another. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. Ricketts contends that the trial court erred when it denied his motion to suppress the discovery, seizure, and admission into evidence of the audiotape recordings found at his home as they were not specifically mentioned in the obtained search warrant; therefore, the police made the warrant an impermissible general warrant in violation of Article I, Section I, Paragraph XIII of the Georgia Constitution, as well as the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. But that is not the case.
In the affidavit in support of the search warrant obtained on January 5, 1996, the affiant stated, inter alia, that Ricketts was under the impression that his wife was having an affair with another male, "possibly named Sam," and described, in pertinent part, the property sought to be seized as The warrant authorizing the search also specifies certain described property including, "answering machine tapes" and "audio tapes." Thus, the seized audiotapes were described with sufficient particularity. Lawler v. State, 276 Ga. 229, 576 S.E.2d 841 (2003); see also Schwindler v. State, 254 Ga.App. 579, 582(1), 563 S.E.2d 154 (2002).2
3. There is no merit to Ricketts's contention that venue was not pled in the indictment. "The true test of the sufficiency of an indictment is not whether it could be made more certain and definite, but whether it contains the elements of the offense charged, apprises the accused of what he must be prepared to defend against, and protects against double jeopardy." Arthur v. State, 275 Ga. 790, 791(2), 573 S.E.2d 44 (2002).
The heading of the indictment in this case read, in large, bold type: "GEORGIA, FORSYTH COUNTY." Then each count of the indictment charged and accused Ricketts of committing the alleged offense "in the County aforesaid." The indictment sufficiently informed Ricketts that he must be prepared to defend against allegations that he committed the charged crimes in Forsyth County.
4. Ricketts contends that the trial court committed reversible error by limiting his closing argument to only one hour instead of permitting his attorneys to argue for two hours as provided by OCGA § 17-8-73. However, the limitation of closing argument is not a basis for reversal in this case.
At trial, Ricketts was represented by three attorneys. The trial court allowed Ricketts's defense team and the prosecution an hour each for closing argument. There was no objection to the one-hour...
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