Thompson v. State

• Decision Date: 01 June 2020
• Docket Number: S20A0245
• Citation: 308 Ga. 854,843 S.E.2d 794
• Parties: THOMPSON v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

308 Ga. 854

843 S.E.2d 794

THOMPSON

v.The STATE.

S20A0245

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: June 1, 2020

Lon Powell Kemeness, P.O. Box 2581, Tifton, Georgia 31793-7566, Attorneys for the Appellant.

Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Leslie Anna Coots, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Clifford Paul Bowden, District Attorney, Tifton Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, 225 North Tift Avenue, 3rd Floor, Tifton, Georgia 31794, Attorneys for the Appellee.

Bethel, Justice.

In December 2016, a Tift County jury found Timmy Leroy Thompson guilty of felony murder in connection with the death of his wife, Peggy Thompson.¹Thompson appeals, contending that the trial court erred (1) by allowing improper testimony regarding other alleged acts of violence committed by Thompson against his stepdaughter, stepson, and daughter to be admitted at trial, and (2) by not applying the rule of sequestration to these other-acts witnesses.For the reasons stated below, we affirm.

1.Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, the evidence presented at trial showed that shortly before midnight on October 29, 2014, law enforcement and emergency medical services were dispatched to Thompson's residence in response to a call indicating that Peggy had suffered a possible drug overdose.Law enforcement had responded to at least 20 prior domestic calls at the residence.Police arrived at the scene, and Peggy's body was observed lying on a bed in a back bedroom.

Unsolicited, Thompson told a police officer that he had arrived home around 6:00 p.m. that evening and that Peggy had been feeling unwell.Peggy had been "drinking heavily," and "using marijuana."After the two had sexual intercourse, Thompson put her to bed.Thompson then claimed to have fallen asleep in the living room while watching a movie.When Thompson was startled awake by the movie, he called out to Peggy and when she did not respond he went to the bedroom and found her unresponsive and naked from the waist down.Thompson called 911 and clothed Peggy before the police arrived.While Thompson spoke to the police officer, an EMS technician came out of the house and told Thompson that Peggy was dead.Thompson then punched out the glass pane of a nearby door and sustained a deep laceration to his forearm.The sergeant did not observe any other injuries or bruises on Thompson.

Just after midnight, another police officer arrived on the scene and observed bruising and discoloration on Peggy's face and neck, as well as fluid leaking from an injury on the back of her head.A GBI crime scene specialist who responded to the scene testified that he observed similar injuries to Peggy's body and a small quantity of marijuana and empty alcohol bottles in the bedroom and that it appeared someone had been sleeping on the couch in the living room.

Thompson was interviewed twice by investigators with the Tift County Sheriff's Office, first in the early morning of October 30, 2014, and second on January 30, 2015, after his arrest.During the first interview, after being given Miranda warnings,² Thompson told police that Peggy had not been feeling well and that he called to check on her periodically throughout the day.Thompson told investigators that after he came home and the pair had sex, Peggy told Thompson that she wanted something to drink.Thompson and Peggy then drove to a convenience store to buy alcohol, and on the way there Peggy became ill.After they purchased the alcohol, they returned home to drink and have dinner.Thompson claimed that Peggy then went to bed around 8:00 p.m. and that he fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie.When awakened, Thompson called out to Peggy and when she did not respond, he found her unconscious, called 911, and attempted CPR.Thompson told investigators that Peggy had been aggravating him when he came home from work, but he denied ever hitting, strangling, or arguing with her that day or at any point in their relationship.³When asked about Peggy's injuries, Thompson told investigators that the bruises on her face had been there for two days and that Peggy commonly fell down and hurt herself when drunk.

After an autopsy, Peggy's cause of death was determined to be blunt-force injuries to her head in conjunction with asphyxia, and her death was ruled a homicide.She had injuries to her head, face, scalp, neck, upper chest area, and arms consistent with blunt-force trauma and strangulation, but not consistent with a fall.Peggy's injuries were determined to have been caused between one and four hours before her death.Oral and rectal buccal swabs collected from Peggy at the scene tested positive for male DNA matching Thompson.

At trial, Peggy's niece testified that, several times in the year before she died, Peggy had stayed with her to "get away" from Thompson.During the last time Peggy stayed with her niece in June of 2014, Peggy was sitting on the front porch when she heard Thompson's motorcycle coming down the road.Peggy jumped up screaming, "He's coming, he's coming," before running back into the house, out of the back door, and into the woods.Thompson yelled so loudly for his wife to come out that neighbors called the police, who then arrived and told Thompson to leave.Peggy remained with her niece for four days before returning to Thompson.Peggy's two children and stepdaughter testified about the abusive treatment they had each suffered from Thompson, and the similar treatment they had seen Peggy suffer.⁴

Peggy's adult daughter testified that she lived at Thompson's and Peggy's home until she was about 14 years old.During that time, Thompson strangled the daughter on multiple occasions and often beat her with a belt buckle and left bruises.She also testified that Thompson had pushed her out of a moving car, causing a serious laceration that needed stiches, had twisted her arm so far that it broke, and had used an extension cord to hit her.She further testified that living in the house felt like "hell," and that Thompson would frequently hit and strangle Peggy and had once tackled Peggy to the floor and pushed her through a glass window.Peggy would fight back sometimes, and other times the children would plead with Thompson to stop hitting and strangling Peggy.

Peggy's adult son also testified about incidents of violence he had experienced while living in Thompson and Peggy's home during his "younger life."He testified that Thompson had a bad temper and would hit him with a paddle board or belt weekly, would strangle him on occasion, and strangled him to win physical fights.Peggy's son further testified that Thompson and Peggy would hold his head down on a pillow until he could no longer breathe.Peggy's son also testified that when Peggy would fight Thompson back, he would strangle her to gain control.Peggy's son once observed Thompson attack and strangle Peggy's father after he told Thompson to stop fighting with Peggy.

Thompson's adult daughter, who moved in with Thompson when she was in fifth grade, testified that Thompson did not hurt her for the first year she lived with him, but after that it became "chaos" as Thompson began to hit her with his hands or a belt, often leaving bruises.Once, Thompson took her to the bedroom and punched her in the face, knocking her onto the bed.Thompson's daughter testified that Peggy and Thompson would physically fight, and that in one of those fights, Thompson slammed Peggy to the ground in the front yard and strangled her.On another occasion, she witnessed Thompson push Peggy down onto a couch and strangle her until she was almost blue.Thompson's daughter also testified that Peggy rarely drank, but that Thompson drank frequently, and the more Thompson drank, the angrier he became.

Although Thompson has not challenged the sufficiency of the evidence presented against him at trial, it is our customary practice to review the sufficiency of the evidence in murder cases, and we have done so here.After reviewing the record of Thompson's trial, we conclude that the evidence presented against him was sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Thompson was guilty of felony murder.SeeJackson v. Virginia , 443 U. S. 307, 318-319 (II)(B)99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560(1979).See alsoBrown v. State , 302 Ga. 454, 456 (1)(b), 807 S.E.2d 369(2017)("It was for the jury to determine the credibility of the witnesses and to resolve any conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence."(citation and punctuation omitted)).

2.Thompson argues that the trial court erred in admitting the other-acts testimony of his stepchildren and daughter under OCGA § 24-4-404 (b) because the evidence was irrelevant to anything other than Thompson's character.We disagree.

OCGA § 24-4-404 (b) states in pertinent part:

Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts shall not be admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith.It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, including, but not limited to, proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.

A trial court's decision to admit other-acts evidence is reviewed for abuse of discretion.Booth v. State , 301 Ga. 678, 682 (3), 804 S.E.2d 104(2017).This Court has adopted a three-part test to determine the admissibility of other crimes and acts under Rule 404 (b):

(1) the evidence must be relevant to an issue other than defendant's character; (2) the probative value must not be substantially outweighed by its undue prejudice; (3) the government must offer sufficient proof so that the jury could find that defendant committed the act.

(Citation omitted.)Bradshaw v. State , 296 Ga. 650, 656 (3), 769 S.E.2d 892(2015).

Here, the State...