Wright v. State
| Decision Date | 22 September 2022 |
| Docket Number | A22A1339 |
| Parties | WRIGHT v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
David Griffin Brisendine III, for Appellant.
Lenny I. Krick, Agatha K. Romanowski, Assistant District Attorneys, Sherry Boston, District Attorney, Decatur, for Appellee.
Following a trial with a co-defendant, the jury found Kecia Leann Wright guilty of criminal attempt to commit murder and aggravated assault stemming from the shooting of her husband.1 The trial court subsequently denied her motion for new trial. On appeal, Wright contends that the evidence was insufficient to support her convictions and that the trial court erred in denying her motion for new trial on the general grounds. Wright emphasizes that there was no evidence that she directly committed the crimes and that the State's theory of the case was that her co-defendant carried out the crimes at her behest, but the jury acquitted her co-defendant. Additionally, Wright challenges the trial court's denial of her plea in bar, contending that the charges brought against her were barred by the applicable four-year statute of limitation. For the reasons discussed more fully below, we affirm.
Construed in favor of the verdict,2 the evidence showed that Wright and Kentrick Lindo were married for many years and had three children together. Wright also had an older daughter from a previous relationship who sometimes lived with them. Wright and Lindo had a tumultuous marriage marked by verbal abuse and struggles with alcohol.
Wright's Plans to Kill Lindo. On several occasions during their marriage, Wright devised plans to kill Lindo, confiding in her oldest daughter and oldest son that she wanted Lindo dead because he allegedly raped her and because she wanted to collect on his $1,000,000 life insurance policy. On one occasion, Wright told her oldest son, who was then around nine years old, that she had a plan to stage a burglary at their house that would result in Lindo being killed. The plan included tying up the son and Wright and then having someone break in and shoot Lindo. The son did not tell Lindo about Wright's plan. On another occasion, the son was sitting on the couch, and Wright came down the stairs, confided in him that she had just poisoned Lindo's food, and had her son come into the kitchen, where she showed him a "little white container" that contained the poison. Wright later told her oldest daughter about the poisoning incident as well. Lindo did not eat the food. The son and the daughter were too afraid to tell Lindo about the attempted poisoning.
Another incident occurred in 2010. That year, there was a fire at the family's residence that began late at night in the upstairs bedroom where Lindo was asleep. Wright and the children got out of the house before the fire department arrived, while Lindo stayed inside and attempted to extinguish the fire. Lindo was unsuccessful in putting out the fire, and the upper level of the house was damaged and had to be rebuilt, but he escaped from the house without any serious injuries. While the fire department put out the fire, Wright confided in her oldest daughter, who was around 20 years old, that as Lindo was sleeping, she started the fire and staged it to look like a candle accidentally fell on the bed. The daughter did not tell anyone about what Wright disclosed to her because she was scared and did not want to get her mother in trouble.
The same year that she started the fire, Wright asked one of her oldest daughter's friends to shoot and kill Lindo. The daughter and her friend named Rico were outside talking when Wright approached them. Wright asked Rico to shoot and kill Lindo in return for money because, she claimed, Lindo had raped her. Rico took $3,000 from Wright, but he did not carry out the shooting because Wright later changed her mind and told him not to do it. The daughter lost contact with Rico afterward. She did not tell anyone about the incident because she was scared and felt torn between Wright and Lindo.
Wright made a similar request to have Lindo killed in 2011. The oldest daughter and her then boyfriend, Onan Allan, were together when Wright came into the room drunk and began talking with them. Wright asked Allan to shoot and kill Lindo in return for money, again accusing Lindo of raping her. Wright told Allan that she would pay him out of the life insurance proceeds. Allan was hesitant, but Wright spoke with him on a second occasion when she was intoxicated, again in the presence of her daughter, and begged Allan to carry out the killing. The daughter urged Allan not to do it because she knew that Wright was not joking, but Allan agreed to do it in return for some of the life insurance proceeds. Lindo was not at the house when these conversations occurred.
The Shooting. The shooting incident that formed the basis for the charges occurred on May 25, 2011. That night, Lindo was driving his convertible through an intersection in DeKalb County down the street from his house. As he drove, Lindo saw a male suddenly come out of the bushes and fire several gunshots at him, but he was unable to identify the shooter at the time. One of the bullets passed through Lindo's back and lodged near his heart. He was able to drive the short distance home, where his son called 911. Law enforcement officers and emergency medical personnel arrived at the house, and Lindo was transported to the hospital, where he was treated for his gunshot wound and released several days later. The trauma surgeon who treated Lindo did not remove the bullet lodged near his heart because of the risks involved in doing so.
The day of the shooting, Wright's oldest daughter received a phone call from Allan in which he confided in her, "It's done." The daughter then received a phone call from Wright telling her that Lindo had been shot. The daughter rushed over to the house but did not tell the police or anyone else what she knew about the shooting because she was scared and was unsure how to handle the situation. After the shooting, the daughter ended her relationship with Allan.
When Lindo came home from the hospital, Wright told her oldest son that someone was supposed to come shoot Lindo and "finish the job." Wright did not identify the potential shooter to her son, and the shooting never occurred. Later one night, when Wright and Lindo were arguing, Wright encouraged her son to stab Lindo in the area where the bullet fragment was lodged so that it would kill him, but her son refused to do so. The son did not tell Lindo about these incidents when they occurred.
The Initial Investigation. Immediately after the shooting, a police officer responded to Lindo's house and observed that Lindo had a gunshot wound and that his car windshield contained several bullet holes. Lindo gave a general description of the shooter but told the officer that he did not know who shot him. Lindo could not provide many details because he was in pain and was focused on getting medical attention.
Detectives were called to the scene shortly after the shooting and began their investigation. They located the intersection where Lindo was shot and recovered six shell casings there. There were no video surveillance cameras that had recorded the shooting, and none of the people present near the scene had been there when the shooting occurred or had any information about what had happened. The detectives interviewed Wright, who had been at home at the time of the shooting, and Lindo was interviewed again at the hospital, but the detectives were unable to develop leads on any potential suspects. The son and the daughter were not interviewed. Lindo's car was transported to the crime lab for processing, where two bullet fragments and bloody clothing were recovered but nothing else of forensic value. The detectives ultimately suspended their investigation in May 2012 for lack of any leads.
The Children's Disclosures. Wright and Lindo later divorced, and Lindo subsequently remarried. In November 2014, the oldest daughter was talking with Lindo and his new wife when Lindo asked her if she knew who had been trying to kill him. The daughter for the first time disclosed to Lindo and his new wife everything she knew about the shooting and about Wright's repeated attempts to kill Lindo. According to the daughter, Lindo was "shocked" and was "hurt that [she] didn't tell him sooner."
In 2015, the son composed a rap song entitled "Saving Dad's Life," which, as described by the son, included lyrics about "basically everything that happened as far as with [Wright] trying to harm [Lindo]." The son played the song for Lindo, who "finally caught on" to the meaning of the lyrics.3 Shortly thereafter, in March 2015, Lindo commented to his oldest son that he thought Wright "tried to burn [him] in the house fire," after which the son told Lindo in detail what he knew about Wright's efforts to kill him. About a week-and-a-half later, the son made the same disclosures to a school counselor.
The Reopened Investigation. In April 2015, Lindo and his new wife spoke with the lead detective who had been assigned to the shooting investigation about the new information they had learned from the daughter and son. The detective subsequently interviewed the daughter, and she identified Allan in a photographic lineup. The detective also interviewed the son, who identified Allan in a photograph as well. Additionally, the detective obtained screenshots of text messages that Wright wrote to Lindo, copies of text messages between Wright and Lindo's new wife, and conversations between Wright and Lindo's new wife recorded on the latter's cell phone. In the text messages and recordings, Wright did not expressly state that she was involved in the shooting. However, in her text messages to Lindo, Wright wrote, among other things, that she was "so sorry," that she "made a bad mistake and a f**ked up decision," and that "this was a huge mistake." In her text messages to...
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