Stewart v. State
| Decision Date | 12 October 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 68425,68425 |
| Citation | 172 Ga.App. 450,323 S.E.2d 652 |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
| Parties | STEWART v. The STATE. |
Harry J. Altman II, Thomasville, for appellant.
H. Lamar Cole, Dist. Atty., James E. Hardy, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.
Appellant brings this appeal from his conviction of rape, burglary, and robbery.
At trial the State produced the following evidence: At 4:00 a.m. on May 18, 1982, the victim was awakened in her home by an intruder who was holding his hand over her mouth. He then raped her and took three rings from her hands. The victim described her assailant as being about 5' 10"' tall, of slender build, with light moustache hair on his upper lip, wearing "a military T-shirt" with a shirt of her husband's over his head, and wool-textured knit gloves on his hands. She thought he was a black man because of the texture of his hair, his speech, and his full lips. The assailant held what the victim thought was a silver-colored table or kitchen knife to her neck when he attacked her. The assailant, still dressed in the T-shirt with the victim's husband's shirt over his head and wearing the knit gloves, was carrying the knife and the victim's rings when he ran out the back door and around the block. The victim notified her husband at work, and he took her to the hospital, where a rape kit was prepared, examined and found to be positive for the presence of spermatozoa.
On May 20, 1982, investigating officers recovered the victim's three rings from a local pawn shop. The rings were sold to the pawn shop by Irwin Johnson, accompanied by another black male driving a white Oldsmobile. Johnson told the police that he got the rings from appellant, who came by his house and picked him up, and that they sold the rings. Johnson was six feet tall and weighed 250 to 260 pounds. Appellant told Johnson that he had "beaten a guy" for the rings at a neighborhood bar. The next day appellant's brother, a deputy sheriff, brought him to the Thomasville Police Department, where appellant was advised of the charges against him and was read his rights.
Appellant gave a statement to police in which he denied guilt or any knowledge of the rings and stated that he did not give them to Johnson, that Johnson alone was selling them and that they probably belonged to Johnson's wife. In a search of appellant's room a pair of wool-textured gloves was found, and a silver bread or kitchen knife was recovered from under the driver's seat of his car. After being allowed to talk to Johnson, appellant told police he had gotten the rings from a 17-year-old white boy named Paul Green. Green was picked up and interrogated, but did not seem to know what the police were talking about. Green testified at trial that he knew nothing about the rings. Appellant took the stand and denied any involvement in the crimes. Several witnesses testified that appellant had been with them the evening of May 16 at a house across the street from where appellant lived, but that he left between 1:30 and 3:00 a.m. on May 17. The crimes occurred at 4:00 a.m. on May 17, and appellant estimated that he lived about one minute away from the victim's home. Appellant's physical appearance was similar to the victim's description of her assailant. Appellant was charged with rape, burglary and robbery, and found guilty on each count.
1. Appellant contends that the evidence, being circumstantial, was insufficient for a rational finder of fact to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Hopkins v. State, 167 Ga.App. 811, 815(2), 307 S.E.2d 707 (1983). ...
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...question of guilt in a circumstantial manner.”) (punctuation omitted). 15. (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Stewart v. State, 172 Ga.App. 450, 451(1), 323 S.E.2d 652 (1984). 16. See Sledge v. State, 312 Ga.App. 97, 98(1), 717 S.E.2d 682 (2011). 17.466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2......
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...to the jury, when viewed as a whole, fairly and accurately presented the relevant considerations. [Cits.]" Stewart v. State, 172 Ga.App. 450, 452, 323 S.E.2d 652 (1984). 2. In the second enumeration of error, the appellant contends that "the trial court erred in failing to charge the jury t......
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...Daniel v. State, 180 Ga.App. 687, 350 S.E.2d 49 (1986); Monroe v. State, 176 Ga.App. 333(1), 335 S.E.2d 736 (1985); Stewart v. State, 172 Ga.App. 450, 323 S.E.2d 652 (1984). JUDGMENTS DEEN, P.J., and SOGNIER, J., concur. ...