Taylor v. State
| Decision Date | 21 November 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. S07A0844.,S07A0844. |
| Citation | 653 S.E.2d 477 |
| Parties | TAYLOR v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
David Joseph Walker, Jonesboro, for appellant.
Jewel Charmain Scott, Dist. Atty., Tiffany Collette Boulware, Asst. Dist. Atty., Jonesboro, Thurbert E. Baker, Atty. Gen., Mary N. Kimmey, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Law, Atlanta, for appellee.
Kimberly Yvonne Taylor appeals her convictions for felony murder and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, all in connection with the death of Elisha Brown. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and vacate in part.1
Construed to support the verdicts, the evidence showed that for two years, Taylor had been in a romantic relationship with Charlotte Harris; the couple had lived together. Four months after they separated, Harris was dating Brown. Taylor wished to speak with Harris, and telephoned Harris and said she would go to Harris's home; Harris told her not to, but Taylor went nonetheless. At Harris's home, Taylor knocked, rang the doorbell, pushed her way past Harris when she came to the door, and then went through the house, turning on the light in a dark bedroom. Harris had been sleeping, and Taylor left. Taylor returned later that day when Harris and Brown were exiting a car in front of Harris's house; Harris's cousin, Nicole Jordan, was in the front yard of her home next door. Taylor repeatedly attempted to speak with Harris, but Harris told Taylor that she did not want to talk. Jordan intervened by asking Taylor for a cigarette, and she and Taylor retrieved a pack of cigarettes from Taylor's car. While at the car, Taylor said to Jordan, "I'm about to slap this B."; Taylor also retrieved a pistol from her car.
When Taylor and Jordan returned to the other women, Harris noticed the pistol under Taylor's shirt and asked Jordan for her cell phone. As Jordan gave the phone to Harris, Taylor drew the pistol and pointed it at Brown. Brown walked backwards with her hands up, and said, "[i]t ain't got to be like this, it ain't got to be like this." Taylor shot her. Brown ran away from Taylor before falling over. Taylor followed. Brown said, "I'm shot," and Taylor responded by kicking Brown, said "shut up, bitch," and fired the remaining bullets into Brown. Harris had retreated indoors; Taylor walked over to the window where Harris was and said, "I love you, but the bitch had to go." Taylor raised her middle finger before walking away. Brown died from gunshot wounds to her torso.
Taylor called 911, and said she shot a female who "got up in my face." When a police officer responded, Taylor walked toward the officer. The officer asked where the firearm was. The officer testified that Taylor's response was that she "threw the gun next to the house after she shot her." The officer handcuffed Taylor, and police personnel retrieved the weapon. While being transported to the police station, Taylor said: "I did it, and then I called 911." During recorded interviews with police, Taylor admitted that Brown did not have a weapon, and admitted to shooting Brown six times.
1. Taylor challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, contending that the evidence supported at most a conviction for voluntary manslaughter, in that the shooting was "solely as the result of a sudden, violent, and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a reasonable person." OCGA § 16-5-2(a).2 The jury found that Taylor acted with malice, and there was ample evidence of such: she retrieved a pistol from her car and secreted it under her shirt; when she pointed it at Brown, Brown retreated, but Taylor shot her anyway; and when Brown was lying on the ground, Taylor walked to her and shot her until the pistol was empty. See Somchith v. State, 272 Ga. 261, 262(1), 527 S.E.2d 546 (2000). The jury was instructed on malice murder, felony murder, and voluntary manslaughter, as well as the other charges in the indictment, and the evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Taylor guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which she was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. Taylor claims that trial counsel failed in several respects to provide effective representation. In order to prevail on this claim, Taylor must show both that counsel's performance was deficient, and that the deficient performance was prejudicial to her defense. Smith v. Francis, 253 Ga. 782, 783(1), 325 S.E.2d 362 (1985), citing Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). To meet the first prong of the required test, the defendant must overcome the "strong presumption" that counsel's performance fell within a "wide range of reasonable professional conduct," and that counsel's decisions were "made in the exercise of reasonable professional judgment." Id. The reasonableness of counsel's conduct is examined from counsel's perspective at the time of trial and under the particular circumstances of the case. Id. at 784, 325 S.E.2d 362. To meet the second prong of the test, the defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, absent any unprofessional errors on counsel's part, the result of her trial would have been different. Id. at 783, 325 S.E.2d 362. Robinson v. State, 277 Ga. 75, 76, 586 S.E.2d 313 (2003).
a.) Taylor asserts that trial counsel should have requested that the jury be instructed on the law of self-defense and justification, claiming that such instructions were authorized by her statements to the 911 operator that: she shot Brown because "[she] jumped in my face, sir, like [she] wanted to fight me"; "she tried to fight me"; and Taylor also contends that such an instruction was supported by her statements to police investigators that: although Taylor had not previously met Brown, over the telephone Brown stated that she wanted to "merk" Taylor; before the shooting, when Brown was three or four feet away, "she bowed up like she was going to hit me"; and
At the hearing on the motion for new trial, trial counsel testified that, given the state of the evidence, he did not consider a self-defense strategy to be viable, and would be at odds with the strategy he chose, i.e., to seek a conviction for the lesser crime of voluntary manslaughter. Taylor notes that an inconsistency between two defenses does not preclude the jury being instructed on each. See Turner v. State, 262 Ga. 359, 359-361(2), 418 S.E.2d 52 (1992). However, that is not the question; at issue is whether trial counsel's decision not to pursue inconsistent defenses was made in the exercise of reasonable professional judgment. Strickland, supra. Pretermitting whether a justification instruction was warranted, see Bowden v. State, 270 Ga. 19, 21-22(3), 504 S.E.2d 699 (1998), as the evidence from three eye-witnesses showed that Taylor went to her car and retrieved a pistol, shot the unarmed Brown when she was retreating, and then went to where Brown lay and shot her several more times, counsel's professional judgment that any justification defense should be discarded in favor of a strategy of seeking a jury verdict of guilt on the lesser crime of voluntary manslaughter was reasonable. See Conaway v. State, 277 Ga. 422, 424(2), 589 S.E.2d 108 (2003).
b.) Taylor claims that trial counsel should have pursued a psychological examination of her to determine whether she could assert the defenses of mental incapacity by insanity, OCGA § 16-3-2,3 and delusional...
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