Strong v. State

• Decision Date: 29 June 2020
• Docket Number: S20A0270
• Citation: 309 Ga. 295,845 S.E.2d 653
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court
• Parties: STRONG v. The STATE.

309 Ga. 295

845 S.E.2d 653

STRONG

v.The STATE.

S20A0270

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: June 29, 2020

Sydney Rene Strickland, Strickland Webster, LLC, 803 Glenwood Ave SE Suite 510-203, Atlanta, Georgia 30316, for Appellant.

Patricia B. Attawagy Burton, Paula Khristian Smith, Christopher M. Carr, Michael Alexander Oldham, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Joyette Marie Holmes, Linda Jeanne Dunikoski, Cobb County District Attorney's Office, 70 Haynes Street, Marietta, Georgia 30090-9602, for Appellee.

Nahmias, Presiding Justice.

Appellant Aaron Strong was convicted of felony murder, aggravated assault, and knife-possession offenses based on the fatal stabbing of his wife's son, Maurice Arnold, and the stabbing of her grandson, Deandre Arnold. At his trial, Appellant claimed that he acted in self-defense. His main contention on appeal is that the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted under OCGA § 24-4-404 (b) voluminous evidence of multiple other acts of violence that he allegedly committed.

As we explain below, the trial court did abuse its discretion by admitting that evidence, and because those evidentiary errors were not harmless, we reverse Appellant's convictions.¹

1. The evidence presented at trial.

The evidence presented at Appellant's trial showed the following.² On August 25, 2015, Appellant and his wife, Felicie Strong, returned to their home in Cobb County after a three-day trip to Florida. Appellant and Felicie shared their home with Felicie's 32-year-old son Maurice and 22-year-old grandson Deandre. Appellant went to his friend's house for a few hours, where he had two alcoholic drinks. He came home as it was getting dark and began to argue in the kitchen with Maurice and Deandre because they had not washed the dirty dishes while Appellant and Felicie were gone. Appellant had a troubled relationship with Maurice and Deandre. Although sometimes they got along, there also were frequent arguments due to Appellant's dissatisfaction with the men's failure to get jobs or help around the house and their continued reliance on Felicie. According to Felicie, Appellant's annoyance with Maurice and Deandre was heightened when he had been drinking.

The argument between Appellant and Maurice and Deandre escalated. Aaron Day, a neighbor who was a friend of Maurice, had been playing video games online with Maurice when the argument started. He heard yelling over the video-game communication channel and became concerned by how heated it sounded, so he walked down to Maurice's house to defuse the situation. Deandre went to his room, and Appellant followed him and "busted the door open." Deandre then stayed in his room, while Appellant returned to the living room and continued to argue with Maurice. Felicie came into the living room, said, "I'm not dealing with this tonight," and left the house. She drove to a nearby parking lot and sat in her car reading a book. Day suggested that Maurice join him outside to smoke a cigarette. Deandre and then Appellant also went outside.

Day, Maurice, and Deandre decided that they should go to Day's house to let Appellant calm down. Maurice and Deandre went back inside the house to get some of their things. Day stayed outside in the yard, holding Maurice's dog on a leash. Appellant stayed on the front porch. A few minutes later, Maurice came back out of the house. As Maurice walked by Appellant, Appellant shoved him into a corner of the porch and began stabbing him with a large hunting knife. Maurice yelled, "Help, help, he's stabbing me!" Deandre rushed outside, and when he came up behind Appellant and tried to stop the attack on Maurice, Appellant began stabbing Deandre. Deandre was able to force Appellant to the ground and escape off the porch. Deandre testified that he had a pocketknife in his pocket, but he was not able to reach it during the fight; Day testified that Maurice and Deandre were unarmed.

Maurice, who could not move, and Appellant remained on the porch while Day called 911.³ At some point, Day approached the porch and turned on his cell phone's flashlight so he could see Maurice. He saw Appellant turn on his own cell phone's flashlight and walk toward the hunting knife, which was still on the porch. Day then backed away. Deandre called Felicie and told her that Appellant was stabbing Maurice; she returned home quickly. When she walked up to the porch, Appellant moved toward her and pointed the knife at her, saying, "This is your fault."⁴ She then walked away from the porch.⁵

When police officers arrived at the house, Appellant seemed calm and submitted to arrest. He showed the officers where the hunting knife was. He said that "someone" had tried to kill him, but he did not have any visible injuries. One of the officers testified that Appellant smelled strongly of alcohol, and the officer who documented the scene after Appellant had been removed testified that the porch smelled strongly of alcohol. Maurice and Deandre were taken to the hospital. Maurice, who had eight wounds caused by stabbing or cutting, including a deep stab wound that lacerated his liver and lung, died in the ambulance. The medical examiner testified that three of Maurice's wounds were minor, and three of them, including the wound to his liver and lung, indicated that the knife went into and out of each wound twice. On cross-examination, the medical examiner acknowledged that this type of double wound could have resulted from the body moving around the knife, rather than the knife being moved in and out again. He also testified that he could not determine from the wounds who the first aggressor was. Deandre, who had been stabbed six to seven times, resulting in wounds to his left chest, shoulder, and arm, remained in the hospital for a week, but ultimately recovered from his wounds.

As detailed in Division 2 (c) below, the State also presented extensive evidence – through seven witnesses and comprising about one-fourth of the transcript of the State's case – about nine other violent acts allegedly committed by Appellant, which the trial court admitted under OCGA § 24-4-404 (b) ("Rule 404 (b)"). This evidence included six alleged assaults and threats against Appellant's former domestic partner Connie Evans between 1991 and 1997; an alleged shooting of Anthony Fortson in his back as he fled down a street in 1994, which resulted in his hospitalization for a month; an alleged assault of Appellant's then-wife Gracie Brown Strong in 2001, which broke her neck and left her permanently paralyzed; and an alleged beating of Appellant's employee Ashanti Magee in 2012. The State did not present any evidence that Appellant had been charged with or convicted of any crimes related to these incidents.

Testifying in his own defense, Appellant claimed that he stabbed Maurice and Deandre in self-defense. He gave the following account. When Appellant returned from his friend's house, Felicie was sitting in the kitchen looking sad. He asked her what was wrong, but she did not answer him. Instead, she walked out of the house and drove away. After she left, he asked Maurice and Deandre what was bothering her, and Maurice said, "None of your damn business." This led to an argument, in which Appellant asked why they had not cleaned up the kitchen. As the argument escalated, Appellant saw a kitchen knife out on the table and decided that he should not continue to argue with Maurice and Deandre in the kitchen, where he was outnumbered. Appellant went to his bedroom. He put the knife that he kept in his bedside table in his pocket, lay down on his bed, and began to fall asleep. Less than 10 minutes later, someone kicked in his bedroom door and then ran to the front door.

Appellant went to the porch, where he saw Maurice, Deandre, and Day talking. Appellant walked in front of Maurice and asked if one of them had kicked in his door. In response, Maurice hit Appellant and Deandre began moving closer. Day got off the porch at some point. Appellant's glasses were knocked off his face, and he saw a round object, which he believed to be a bat, in Maurice's hand.⁶ Appellant grabbed Maurice's arm and Deandre came from behind Appellant, wrapping his arm around Appellant's neck. Appellant pulled out his knife and began stabbing Maurice and Deandre. Appellant eventually hit Maurice, who fell down. Appellant then slipped in blood and landed on his back. Deandre fell on top of him and began throwing ineffectual punches. Appellant told Deandre to get off him so he could help Maurice, but Deandre refused, saying, "I been wanting to do this." Deandre walked off the porch when Day said the police were coming. As he walked off, Deandre said, "I hope they shoot your MF ass." Appellant then tried to call one of his daughters. He did not call 911 because he knew Day had already called.⁷

Appellant, who was 67 years old at the time but in good physical condition, explained that although he was not afraid of Maurice or Deandre by themselves, he was afraid of the two of them taking him on together.⁸ Appellant testified that in 2010, Maurice and Appellant got into an argument, and Maurice got his gun, "put it in [Appellant's] face," and said, "You don't know what you're getting into." Maurice then pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. Deandre testified that he had heard about the fight where Maurice pulled a gun on Appellant. Felicie testified that Appellant had body-slammed Maurice before Maurice got his gun and brandished it at Appellant; she was told later that Maurice had pulled the trigger. Maurice was arrested and put on probation for this offense. Appellant also testified that in 2014, after Felicie said she would not buy Maurice a new laptop, Maurice said to Felicie, "That's why I'm going to kill you and him." Appellant reported this threat to the police the next day, but he said that he did so only to create a record; he was not afraid. Felicie testified that Maurice threatened her and A...