Rushing v. State
| Decision Date | 17 May 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. S99A0495.,S99A0495. |
| Citation | 515 S.E.2d 607,271 Ga. 102 |
| Parties | RUSHING v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
August F. Siemon, Atlanta, for Sredrick Rushing.
John Thomas Morgan III, Dist. Atty., Robert M. Coker, Asst. Dist. Atty., Decatur, Thurbert E. Baker, Atty. Gen., Paula K. Smith, Senior Asst. Atty. Gen., Angelica M. Woo, Asst. Atty. Gen., Department of Law, Atlanta, for the State.
This appeal is from Sredrick Rushing's conviction for malice murder.1 The evidence presented at trial authorized the following to be found as facts. Rushing and the victim, Saronda West, were both detention officers employed at the DeKalb County Jail, and had been engaged in an affair for approximately a year at the time of her death. West had decided, however, to reconcile with her husband and was breaking up with Rushing. They had an argument at work on September 8, 1997, lasting at least an hour and witnessed by others. After work on September 10, just after 8:00 a.m., they were seen talking beside West's car in the jail parking lot. She did not return home from work that day, and when Rushing was contacted by her family, he said he had not seen her since their shift ended, claiming he had worked overtime. Rushing bought a new mattress that day, arranged for it to be delivered that day, and had the old mattress, the cover of which had been cut off, removed by the delivery personnel. A maintenance person at Rushing's apartment complex told investigators that he had seen West's car and Rushing's in front of Rushing's apartment on the day of West's death. The police first interviewed Rushing about West's absence the next day, at which time he claimed to have gone home and to bed when his shift ended. A consent search of his apartment revealed nothing inculpatory, but a can of carpet cleaner was seen on the kitchen counter. He told a friend that day that he had seen a letter in which West's husband threatened to harm her and Rushing if he caught them together. West's car was found in a MARTA parking lot the next day with West's body in the trunk, wrapped in sheets and a comforter belonging to Rushing. She had died of a single gunshot to the head from a.45 caliber pistol. The lack of gunpowder residue around the wound indicated that the gun was far enough from her when fired to make it virtually impossible that she shot herself. Rushing, questioned again in a voluntary interview at police headquarters, contradicted his first story about going home after his shift, and claimed instead to have requested overtime, but stayed in the locker room at the jail till 11:00 a.m. He said he owned a .45 caliber pistol which was kept in West's car. Two search warrants for Rushing's apartment were obtained and executed. The first revealed ammunition for the missing pistol and red stains on the wall and a kitchen cabinet. The second search unearthed a radio belonging to the Sheriff's Department and issued to Rushing, though he was not authorized to have it at home. Rushing was arrested the day of the second search for theft by receiving and for making false statements. Following an interview lasting approximately 11 hours, Rushing made a statement in which he claimed that he came home from work to find West in his apartment holding his gun; that he asked her for the gun and reached for it; and that it went off and she fell to the bed, whereupon he panicked, wrapped her up, disposed of her body, and took other steps to hide her death, including dismantling the gun and discarding the pieces. He led police officers to the place he had hidden the frame of the weapon. At trial, a similar transaction witness testified that during her relationship with Rushing, he would sometimes point a gun at her head or put a pillow over her head and point a gun at her through the pillow. That witness testified that Rushing asked her to lie for him at this trial. Rushing testified at trial that he arrived home to find West already dead, then disposed of her body. He disavowed his earlier statement as having been what the interrogating officers wanted him to say.
1. In the first of two enumerations of error, Rushing asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress and in admitting into evidence items seized during the searches of his apartment. The basis for his argument is his contention that the warrants were invalid because the affidavits on which they were based were insufficient to establish probable cause to believe that evidence of crime would be found in his apartment.
The duty of a reviewing court is simply to ensure that the magistrate had a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed (Bromley v. State, 259 Ga. 377(3), 380 S.E.2d 694 (1989)), and a reviewing court will pay substantial deference to a search warrant finding probable cause issued by a magistrate. McClain v. State, 267 Ga. 378(11), 477 S.E.2d 814 (1996). Our standard of review of the trial court's decision...
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State v. Blackwell
...to or specifically ruled upon by the trial court are waived and not generally considered by this Court. Rushing v. State, 271 Ga. 102, 104-105(2), 515 S.E.2d 607 (1999); O'Hannon v. State, 240 Ga.App. 706, 709(2), 524 S.E.2d 759 (1999); Brantley v. State, 226 Ga.App. 872, 873(1), 487 S.E.2d......
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