Sport v. State, 41608
| Decision Date | 07 January 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 41608,41608 |
| Citation | 253 Ga. 689,324 S.E.2d 184 |
| Parties | SPORT v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Daniel J. Craig, Harrison, Jolles & Craig, A.P.C., Augusta (court-appointed), for Jerry Anthony Sport.
Sam B. Sibley, Jr., Dist. Atty., Augusta, Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., Eddie Snelling, Jr., Atlanta, for the State.
Jerry Sport shot and killed Arthur Glover with a handgun. He appeals his conviction of murder and sentence to life imprisonment. 1
1. Sport contends that the trial court improperly allowed the state to reopen its case to present a witness who had been shot by Sport in an unrelated incident.
The witness, Eddie Shields, testified that Sport shot him with a .22 caliber revolver during a dice game in an argument over a debt. This occurred on the day before Sport killed Glover. Prior to this testimony, the court charged the jury that they were to consider the evidence only to show Sport's "bent of mind, in other words, his alleged propensity for the offensive use of a pistol." In turn, the trial court offered to allow Sport to reopen his defense in order to respond to this additional evidence, but he declined.
In Felker v. State, 252 Ga. 351, 314 S.E.2d 621 (1984), we held that evidence of prior criminal actions are admissible if relevant to the issues in the present case. The state must show, however, that the defendant was in fact the perpetrator of the prior action and that sufficient similarity exists between the prior action and the offense charged. Walraven v. State, 250 Ga. 401, 297 S.E.2d 278 (1982). Once this foundation is laid, evidence of prior crimes is admissible to show motive, intent, plan, identity, bent of mind or course of conduct.
Shields' testimony revealed that he had been shot by Sport the day before, with a similar, if not the same, weapon, in an argument over money. This evidence demonstrated Sport's bent of mind and propensity for use of a pistol. In view of the limited purpose for which the evidence was admitted, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the testimony.
2. Sport's second enumeration of error alleges that the medical testimony failed to establish a causal connection between the wound and the victim's death. A physician testified that the cause of death was "pneumonia and the pneumonia was caused by the paralysis of his lungs, not the lungs but the breathing muscles that allowed him to breathe properly and this was caused by the gunshot wound to...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Norman v. State
...184 (1987) (sufficient similarity existed where both crimes involved defendant firing a weapon while intoxicated); Sport v. State, 253 Ga. 689, 690 (1), 324 S.E.2d 184 (1985) (prior act evidence showing that defendant shot another person the day before the murder with a similar weapon was a......
-
Carson v. State
...on the head at night with blunt objects not commonly wielded as a weapon, specifically a brick and a rock. See Sport v. State , 253 Ga. 689, 690 (1), 324 S.E.2d 184 (1985) (prior acts evidence showing that defendant shot another person the day before the murder with a similar weapon was adm......
-
Farley v. State
...683(2), 333 S.E.2d 593 (1985) ("habit of periodically firing a gun" admissible to rebut claim of self-defense); Sport v. State, 253 Ga. 689, 690(1), 324 S.E.2d 184 (1985) ("bent of mind and propensity for use of a pistol"); Saylors v. State, 251 Ga. 735, 738(7), 309 S.E.2d 796 (1983) ("prio......
-
Carver v. State, 74523
...displaying dangerous weapons at public demonstrations. See Wood v. State, 255 Ga. 697, 698(4), 341 S.E.2d 442, supra; and Sport v. State, 253 Ga. 689(1), 324 S.E.2d 184. 6. Defendant contends in his seventh enumeration of error that the trial court erred in allowing the State's attorney to ......