Taylor v. State

• Decision Date: 21 June 2016
• Docket Number: A16A0463
• Citation: 788 S.E.2d 97,337 Ga.App. 486
• Parties: Taylor v. The State.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

337 Ga.App. 486

788 S.E.2d 97

Taylor

v.The State.

A16A0463

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

June 21, 2016

Jennifer Sullivan Hanson, Bruce Steven Harvey, for Appellant.

Paul L. Howard Jr., Atlanta, Marc A. Mallon, Asst. Dist. Atty., for Appellee.

Peterson, Judge.

Following a jury trial, Joshua Taylor was convicted of homicide by vehicle in the first degree, driving without a valid license, and operating a vehicle without a current registration. Taylor appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial and argues that (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the results of a chemical test, (2) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions, (3) the trial court erred in qualifying a witness as an expert, and (4) he received ineffective assistance of counsel. We reverse Taylor's convictions for driving without a valid license and operation of a vehicle without a current registration because trial counsel was ineffective in failing to object to hearsay evidence that was the only evidence supporting these charges. We affirm Taylor's conviction for vehicular homicide because the trial court did not err in denying his motion to suppress or in qualifying the witness as an expert, the evidence was sufficient to support his convictions, and trial counsel's performance on other issues did not constitute ineffective assistance.

“On appeal, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to support the verdict, and the appellant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence.” Culver v. State , 230 Ga.App. 224, 224, 496 S.E.2d 292 (1998) (citation omitted). So viewed, the evidence shows that around 2:00 a.m. on the morning of July 17, 2012, Laquilla Oglesby was driving her uncle, Keith Thompson, south on I–85 in Atlanta. Oglesby and Thompson saw a black Jeep driven by Ronnie Bascom, the victim, swerve and crash into a guardrail near exit 84, and the vehicle came to a rest on the exit ramp. Oglesby stopped her car to render assistance to Bascom, who had staggered out of his vehicle. A passerby asked if Oglesby and Bascom were okay, and Oglesby asked the passerby to call the police. While they waited for police to arrive, Oglesby stood by Bascom near the driver's side door of his car. Meanwhile, because the area was not illuminated, Thompson began waving a light in order to alert oncoming traffic. Most of the cars exiting the off-ramp slowed down and were able to move around Bascom's crashed vehicle.

One car, driven by Joshua Taylor, did not slow down. Taylor was driving far faster than the rest of the traffic. While Oglesby was talking to Bascom, she saw the headlights of Taylor's car quickly approaching and she ran out of the way. Oglesby did not see what happened to Bascom, but she saw that Taylor's car had hit a concrete barrier and had caught on fire.

Shortly thereafter, police officers arrived at the scene and observed that Taylor's car was on fire and that he was sitting in the driver's seat. After police officers pulled Taylor out of his car, they observed that his speech was slurred, he smelled of alcohol, and appeared to be extremely intoxicated. Taylor told police officers that his friend was driving and gave multiple names for his friend, but the officers did not find anyone in the vicinity that matched Taylor's description of his friend. The officers did find Bascom lying in the grass median, and Bascom was not conscious or breathing. Bascom died as the result of blunt force trauma to the head and neck, and the medical examiner explained that the force of the impact was so great that the ligaments connecting Bascom's head to his neck were ruptured.

As a result of the fatality, Officer Christopher Hewitt, head of the Traffic Fatality Investigations Unit with the Atlanta Police Department, was dispatched. Officer Hewitt sent investigators to the scene while he went to Grady Hospital, where Taylor had been sent. When Officer Hewitt arrived at Grady, Taylor was conscious and lying on a gurney in the trauma bay. Officer Hewitt questioned Taylor about the accident. Officer Hewitt did not tell Taylor that he was under arrest, and Taylor appeared to understand everything that was happening. During his conversation with Officer Hewitt, Taylor admitted that he had three beers and several shots. Officer Hewitt observed that Taylor had slurred speech, his eyes were glassy and bloodshot, he smelled of alcohol, and he had ligature marks from his left shoulder down across his chest, which was consistent with a seat-belt burn.

Based on Officer Hewitt's observations and Taylor's admissions, Taylor was placed under arrest. A police officer read the implied consent notice to Taylor, and he refused to submit to chemical testing. Almost three hours after the accident, Officer Hewitt applied for and obtained a search warrant to collect a blood sample. The results of the chemical test of Taylor's blood revealed that he had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.196 and tested positive for the presence of marijuana, cocaine, and Xanax. Officer Hewitt testified that, in completing the search warrant application, he conducted a computer check of Taylor's driver's license and discovered that his license had been suspended. Officer Hewitt also testified that the vehicle registration on Taylor's car had expired.

1. Taylor argues that the trial court erred under Franks v. Delaware , 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), in denying his motion to suppress the results of the chemical test of his blood because the search warrant contained numerous false statements and the truthful portions of the warrant affidavit did not establish probable cause. We disagree.

Under Franks, if a defendant shows by a preponderance of the evidence that the search warrant affiant knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, makes a false statement in the affidavit, then the affidavit's false material must be set aside. State v. Hall, 276 Ga.App. 769, 772, 624 S.E.2d 298 (2005). The affidavit's remaining content must be re-examined and if that content is insufficient to establish probable cause, “the search warrant must be voided and the fruits of the search excluded to the same extent as if probable cause was lacking on the face of the affidavit.” Id. (citation and punctuation omitted).

In this case, the record shows that Officer Hewitt made several false statements in his warrant affidavit. He stated that Taylor was in the county jail at the time the application was made, but Taylor was actually at Grady Hospital. He said Taylor refused to submit to field sobriety tests and refused to provide a sample of his breath, but no such test or breath samples were requested. Officer Hewitt also stated that he initiated a traffic stop of Taylor's vehicle, but no officer made a traffic stop.

Officer Hewitt testified that the misstatements were unintentional and were attributable to his inability to change certain fields in the computer program he used to prepare the warrant application.¹ The trial court believed Officer Hewitt that the false statements were unintentional, but it did not consider whether the statements were made with a reckless disregard for the truth.

We need not—and thus do not—decide whether any of these false statements were made knowingly and intentionally or with reckless disregard for the truth, because the rest of the information contained in the affidavit—which Taylor does not challenge— establishes probable cause to believe Taylor was driving while impaired. Specifically, Officer Hewitt swore that there was evidence showing that Taylor was the driver of a 2008 Saturn that had been involved in an automobile accident in which an unidentified black male (Bascom) had been killed. Officer Hewitt also swore that while being interviewed at Grady Hospital, Taylor had admitted to drinking earlier that night. These circumstances alone were sufficient for a reasonable officer to conclude that Taylor had been driving under the influence and, thus, the magistrate had probable cause to issue the search warrant. See Hughes v. State , 296 Ga. 744, 750(2), 770 S.E.2d 636 (2015) (officers had probable cause to believe that defendant was under the influence of some intoxicant when they had reason to believe he caused a fatal accident and he had a number of unknown pills on his person).

Although we are able to conclude that the warrant affidavit established probable cause without the false statements, we must pause to observe the problematic nature of the warrant application process involved in this case. The magistrate judge issued a warrant based on an application containing numerous demonstrably false statements. The State places blame for the false statements on the software program used. If this is true, then the continuing use of a software program that automatically inserts false statements into the warrant applications of one of the largest law enforcement agencies in this state is, to say the least, deeply troubling. And regardless of what caused false statements to be present in the affidavit, an officer still swore that the contents of the affidavit were true and presented the application as such to a magistrate judge. It should not have to be said that individuals presenting testimony to a court have a duty of candor, or that individuals making statements under oath should take great care to make sure those statements are truthful. Unfortunately, we are compelled to say what should be obvious because not enough care was taken in this case, and because the flaws displayed in this warrant application process seriously undermines the integrity of the judicial process. Despite these flaws, the warrant application still had sufficient information to establish probable cause, and therefore we are required to conclude that the trial court did not err in denying Taylor's motion to suppress.

2. Taylor argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions. We disagree.

When we review...