Wright v. State, S02A1350.

• Decision Date: 27 March 2003
• Docket Number: No. S02A1350.,S02A1350.
• Citation: 276 Ga. 454,579 S.E.2d 214
• Parties: WRIGHT v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

579 S.E.2d 214

276 Ga. 454

WRIGHT v. The STATE.

No. S02A1350.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

March 27, 2003.

Reconsideration Denied April 11, 2003.

Christopher A. Townley, Rossville, for appellant.

Herbert E. Franklin, Jr., Dist. Atty., Thurbert E. Baker, Atty. Gen., Ruth M. Pawlak, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee. HINES, Justice.

Gerald Wayne Wright appeals from his convictions on two counts of malice murder, one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and one count of concealing the death of another, all in connection with the death of his wife, Beverly Wright, and his friend, Richard Hudson.¹ For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

Construed to support the verdicts, the evidence showed that Gerald Wayne Wright ("Wright") and Beverly Wright ("Beverly") resided in Dade County and had been married for almost 25 years when they separated in March of 2000; Wright left the house. Soon thereafter Wright filed for divorce. There were attempts to reconcile, but no positive resolution. In mid-June, 2000, Beverly saw Wright enter the Villager Motel with another woman. Parked outside the motel, Beverly, using her cellular telephone, called Wright on his cellular telephone and asked if the couple would like to exit the motel for a photograph. Wright left the room, still speaking on his telephone, and approached Beverly. She drove away and he drove after her, eventually forcing her off the road. He walked up to her car and demanded the camera on the front seat. She refused; he went to his car for a metal object and threatened to break her window. Beverly lowered the window and Wright reached in over her and took the camera. Beverly's telephone call to 911 about the incident was recorded.

On June 29, 2000, in a final attempt to save the relationship, Wright and Beverly went to a marriage counselor. Shortly after entering the session, Beverly stated that she had no desire to reconcile, and left. That afternoon, Wright went to Beverly and told her that if she brought a man into "his" house, he would kill her. That evening, he asked his friend Richard Hudson to talk with Beverly and try to persuade her to take Wright back, a role in which Hudson had previously served. Late that night, Wright went to the marital home where Beverly continued to reside, and discussed the matter with Hudson and Beverly. Wright left to get some cigarettes. Upon returning, he discovered Hudson and Beverly lying on the bed in the master bedroom. Wright had a disposable camera and took a photograph of the two in what Wright described as an embrace in which Hudson appeared to be consoling Beverly. Hudson and Beverly had recently developed a relationship with one another beyond their connection through Wright. An argument ensued, Wright hit Hudson over the head with a flashlight several times, shot him twice, and then forced Beverly to leave the house with him.

Late in the morning of June 30, 2000 after not being able to reach her mother by telephone, the couple's daughter, Jennifer, drove to her mother's home. She discovered Hudson's body on the floor of the master bedroom. At 11:23 a.m., Jennifer called the police. There were smears of blood in the garage. Hudson had fatal gunshot wounds to his torso fired from a .38 caliber Taurus handgun owned by Beverly, which she kept in the headboard of her bed. By 1:46 p.m., investigators had learned of the marital problems, had determined that the .38 pistol was missing, and had issued bulletins to "be on the lookout" for Wright and Beverly, his car, and Beverly's car; it was stated that Wright should be considered armed and dangerous.

Investigation revealed that Wright planned to go to Florida with a friend named Tyson. At approximately 4:40 p.m. on June 30, 2000, Wright's car was discovered outside Tyson's trailer in neighboring Walker County. Officers arrived, and Tyson informed them that Wright was asleep inside, alone. The police entered the trailer and took Wright into custody in the bedroom. In his car was a .38 caliber revolver that was proved to have been used to kill Hudson. Taken from the bedroom was a duffle bag in which there was a prescription bottle labeled with Hudson's name, the key to Hudson's car, a disposable camera, and clothes belonging to Wright which were wet, muddy, and bloody.

Early in the afternoon of June 30, 2000, it was discovered that a car had gone off Lookout Mountain and was in the trees 75 feet below a cliff edge. No one was inside the car. Recovery efforts began at approximately 8:00 p.m., but were unsuccessful until the next day. The car was determined to be Beverly's and her body was found near it. She had suffered numerous blows to the head with a blunt object; her skull was "bashed in." Some injuries to her torso occurred after her death; her injuries were not consistent with her being alive as the car went over the cliff. The location of the car was near the Wright's marital home in the valley below. The home of Wright's brother, where Wright had been staying since leaving the marital home, was 200 or 300 yards from the marital home.

Wright testified that: Beverly shot Hudson; Wright attempted to flee but Beverly caught him and forced him to the garage floor; she forced Wright at gunpoint to drive to the top of Lookout Mountain; she forcibly committed oral sodomy on him after pinning his hands in the window; they struggled over the pistol; Beverly was struck in the head several times but prevailed in the struggle; at gunpoint, she forced Wright into the front passenger seat of the car; she got into the driver's seat and attempted to drive the car off the cliff with Wright inside; Wright managed to roll out of the car as it was going over the edge of the cliff, grabbing the pistol as he went; Beverly remained in the car; Wright then walked to his brother's home, where he showered, changed, and put the items he thought might be evidence into a duffle bag and left his brother's home; he did not know whether Hudson or Beverly remained alive; he did not call an ambulance or the police, but did attempt to call his attorney, who was out of town;² he drove to Tyson's home and went to sleep. During pre-trial incarceration, Wright wrote a letter to a friend reciting substantially the same version of events.

1. The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Wright guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

2. The trial court allowed certain witnesses to testify as to statements made by Beverly before her death under the necessity exception to the hearsay exclusion rule. OCGA § 24-3-1(b). For such testimony to be admissible, the declarant must be unavailable and the statement must have particularized guarantees of trustworthiness. Abraha v. State, 271 Ga. 309, 313(2), 518 S.E.2d 894 (1999). "[T]he circumstances `[which demonstrate] the reliability of (hearsay) statements will vary depending on the nature of the statements, [and therefore,] the determination of trustworthiness is inescapably subjective." Gissendaner v. State, 272 Ga. 704, 710-711(6), 532 S.E.2d 677 (2000). Whether guarantees of trustworthiness exist is determined by the totality of the circumstances, and the trial court exercises its discretion in resolving the issue. McCulley v. State, 273 Ga. 40, 41 42(2)(a), 537 S.E.2d 340 (2000). The trial court's determination will not be reversed absent an abuse of its discretion. Gissendaner, supra.

It must be noted that Wright has not specified the statements he contends were both improperly admitted and harmful to him, other than those "concerning bad acts or misconduct" on Wright's part, during the separation.³ Apparently, Wright is alleging reversible error based on the testimony of certain of Beverly's friends and Jennifer Wright. Although Wright contends that the fact that the witnesses were Beverly's daughter and Beverly's friends shows bias on their part,⁴ the "[u]ncontradicted statements made to one in whom the deceased declarant placed great confidence and to whom she turned for help with her problems are admissible under the necessity exception." Ward v. State, 271 Ga. 648, 650(2), 520 S.E.2d 205 (1999). Each of the witnesses at issue testified that she had such a relationship with Beverly, that she and Beverly regularly discussed matters concerning Beverly's relationship with Wright, and that nothing Beverly had ever told her had been recanted. All but one testified that she was sufficiently intimate with Beverly to know of Beverly's use of illegal drugs; the other witness was not asked if she knew of that history.

Wright contends that all of these witnesses were not shown to be confidantes of Beverly because the true nature of Beverly's relationship with Hudson was not revealed to them; to most of these witnesses, Beverly stated that she and Hudson were merely friends who went to dinner on occasion, although Jennifer Wright testified that Beverly and Hudson had become close and had begun "dating" in the last two weeks before their deaths, and that she had seen Beverly and Hudson kissing in a romantic manner "less than a week" before their deaths. But, the true nature of the relationship between Beverly and Hudson was not established beyond question, and though there was some evidence that Beverly and Hudson had spent a night in the same house, other evidence showed that Hudson was sexually impotent, a fact Beverly had shared with at least some of the witnesses. Even assuming a romantic relationship, the only evidence showed that it existed for a short period of time immediately preceding the deaths of Hudson and Beverly, and any failure of Beverly's to tell all the challenged witnesses that she and Hudson were romantically involved did not prevent the court, in the exercise of its discretion, from determining that these witnesses were those "in whom the deceased...