Williams v. State
| Decision Date | 02 October 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 42400,42400 |
| Citation | 334 S.E.2d 691,255 Ga. 21 |
| Parties | WILLIAMS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Samuel H. Kirbo, Jonesboro, Stanley R. Carpenter, Decatur, for Horace Williams.
Robert E. Wilson, Dist. Atty., Decatur, and Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., Atlanta, for the State.
Horace Williams was convicted of felony murder and the underlying felony of aggravated assault by shooting Andrew Holloman in the leg with a handgun, causing him to fall under the wheels of his motor vehicle, thereby causing his death. Williams also was convicted of aggravated assault by shooting at Vernesa Sims. 1
The jury heard testimony indicating that both events occurred at a lounge. Williams was intoxicated. He demanded five dollars from fellow patrons of the lounge, brandished a handgun, and threatened to shoot out the lights. He later fired his handgun from the parking lot of the lounge in the general direction of a passing police vehicle. Williams forcibly opened the door of the victim's car and demanded money for drinks. When the victim refused, Williams fired several rounds into Holloman's vehicle, missing Ms. Sims but striking the victim in the leg. Holloman fell from his vehicle, which then rolled over him. Medical testimony indicated that the leg wound was neither life-threatening nor disabling, and that the victim died from asphyxiation caused by pressure applied to his body by one of the vehicle's tires and by the twisting of his clothing around his neck.
1. Williams contends that the evidence does not support the verdict. Specifically, he contends that he did not cause the death of the victim within the meaning of the felony murder statute, which provides: "A person also commits the offense of murder when, in the commission of a felony, he causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice." OCGA § 16-5-1(c). He relies upon the uncontradicted medical testimony that the bullet wound to the victim's leg neither was life-threatening nor disabling.
"Where one commits a felony upon another, such felony is to be accounted as the efficient, proximate cause of the death whenever it shall be made to appear ... that the felony directly and materially contributed to the happening of a subsequent accruing immediate cause of the death...." Durden v. State, 250 Ga. 325, 329, 297 S.E.2d 237 (1982). Here, the assault upon Holloman directly and materially contributed to his death by asphyxiation by causing him to fall from and be run over by his motor vehicle. The nature of the leg wound is of no consequence.
2. The evidence supports the verdict. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
3. The underlying felony of aggravated assault upon Holloman, which supported the conviction for felony murder, must be reversed. Turner v. State, 253 Ga. 762(1), 325 S.E.2d 149 (1985). The conviction for the separate aggravated assault upon Ms. Sims may stand. Satterfield...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
The State v. Jackson
...or that the injury materially accelerated the death, although proximately occasioned by a pre-existing cause.”); Williams v. State, 255 Ga. 21, 22, 334 S.E.2d 691 (1985) (relying Durden to uphold felony murder conviction where the defendant shot the victim in the leg, causing him to fall ou......
-
Brown v. the State.
...for the April 2010 term and orally argued on July 5, 2010. 1. Skaggs v. State, 278 Ga. 19, 596 S.E.2d 159 (2004). 2. Williams v. State, 255 Ga. 21, 334 S.E.2d 691 (1985). 3. Durden v. State, 250 Ga. 325, 297 S.E.2d 237 (1982). See also Dupree v. State, 247 Ga. 470, 277 S.E.2d 18 (1981) (def......
-
Roulain v. Martin, S95A1427
...estopped to contend that the trial court erred in giving any charge which was in accordance with his own request. Williams v. State, 255 Ga. 21, 23(6), 334 S.E.2d 691 (1985). Although Martin's trial preceded Edge, "a defendant will not be allowed to induce an asserted error, sit silently ho......
-
Anderson v. State
...(2000). 5. 261 Ga. 865, 414 S.E.2d 463 (1992). 6. See Bryant v. State, 271 Ga. 99, 101-102, 515 S.E.2d 836 (1999); Williams v. State, 255 Ga. 21, 23, 334 S.E.2d 691 (1985). 7. See Barron v. State, 261 Ga. 814, 815-816, 411 S.E.2d 494 (1992). 8. See Chapel v. State, 270 Ga. 151, 156, 510 S.E......