Young v. State
| Decision Date | 04 November 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. A97A1792,A97A1792 |
| Citation | 229 Ga.App. 497,494 S.E.2d 226 |
| Parties | , 97 FCDR 4114 YOUNG v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Richard C. Sutton, Thomas M. Rego, Tallapoosa, for appellant.
James R. Osborne, District Attorney, Grover W. Hudgins, Fred A. Lane, Jr., Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
Thomas Odell Young III, shot and killed Tina Michelle Brown. Young was indicted for murder, felony murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. A jury found him not guilty of murder and felony murder and guilty on the remaining charges. In entering judgment, the trial court merged the aggravated assault conviction into the voluntary manslaughter conviction.
On appeal from the judgment entered on the guilty verdicts, Young claims the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his self-defense claim was not viable and that the evidence was otherwise insufficient to support the convictions. We find the evidence was sufficient to allow the jury to reject the self-defense claim and to find Young guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, we affirm.
The evidence showed that Brown and Young had been divorced for about a year at the time of the shooting. On the day of the shooting, Brown's mother drove her to Young's residence so that Brown could retrieve an address book that she claimed Young had recently stolen from her car. Just prior to driving there, Brown called 911 and requested that a police officer be sent to meet her at Young's residence. Pursuant to that call, an officer was dispatched to Young's residence. Brown and her mother arrived at Young's residence before the police officer arrived. Young's mother let Brown into the residence, and Brown's mother remained outside.
Inside the residence, a heated argument ensued between Brown and Young. According to Young and his mother, Brown pulled a pistol, pointed it at both of them, then turned away from them and started to walk toward the door of the residence. Young's mother testified that when Brown reached the door, she turned around, walked toward her a few steps, raised the pistol and fired two shots at her which missed. Ms. Young testified that Young was positioned by a corner where he could not see Brown turn around and fire the shots. Ms. Young testified that when the shots were fired, she exclaimed, "She shot, she shot," and that she moved over out of Brown's line of fire. She testified that when Young heard her say this, he retrieved a rifle from the laundry room located a few feet away. Ms. Young testified that when she saw her son with the rifle, she grabbed his arm, said "Put it down," and the rifle fired into the ceiling. At that point, Ms. Young said her son reached the rifle around the corner and fired two or three shots without aiming at Brown. Ms. Young testified that she looked around the corner and saw Brown lying on the floor.
Young gave a statement to police in which he said that during an argument at his residence, Brown pulled a pistol and pointed it at him and his mother. He said that in response, he retrieved the rifle because he was afraid of Brown. He stated that his mother tried to take the rifle away from him and it fired into the ceiling while they were struggling. Although Young stated he was aware that Brown had walked away toward the door of the residence as he went to get the rifle, he told the officer that he could not see Brown from where he was standing with the rifle because he was behind a wall. He stated it was "highly possible" that when the rifle was fired into the ceiling, Brown was walking toward the door. Young said he peeked around the corner at some point and saw Brown "holding, pointing, you know, still holding the gun." When asked if he heard or saw Brown fire the pistol, Young responded, Although Young's statement indicates that he fired the rifle after he broke free from his mother, it does not describe the manner in which he did so. Young told the officers that after he stopped firing, he realized that Brown had been hit by a bullet when he peeked around the corner again and saw her lying on the floor. Young did not testify at trial.
Brown's mother testified that while she was waiting outside the residence, she saw Ms. Young through a window of the residence struggling with a man. She testified that she then heard three to five shots fired in rapid succession and that about that time, the police officer dispatched by the 911 call arrived on the scene. The officer testified that when he approached Young's residence, the door was open and he saw Brown lying on the floor on her back with a gunshot wound in her forehead. She was lying about ten feet from the door with her head toward the door. When Brown was moved by paramedics called to the scene, a pistol was found on the floor under her body. Brown's mother testified that Brown had received a pistol as a Christmas gift a few days...
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