Heade v. State

Demetrius Heade was convicted by a Gwinnett County jury of shooting and killing Michael Harvey after Harvey's truck accidentally struck the stolen minivan Heade was driving. At trial, prosecutors also presented evidence that Heade had shot his girlfriend Tilisha Tate, murdered a man named Lavester Brennan to steal his minivan, and robbed a woman at gunpoint, all in the days before Harvey's death. On appeal, Heade argued the trial court wrongly let jurors hear about these other crimes, that his own lawyer was ineffective for not objecting to one piece of that evidence, and that all the errors together unfairly hurt his case. The Supreme Court of Georgia disagreed on all three points, finding the prior crimes were so tied up with the Harvey shooting that they helped tell the full story to the jury. However, the court caught two sentencing mistakes on its own: Heade should not have been separately sentenced for both malice murder and felony murder, and his aggravated assault conviction should have been merged into (folded into) the murder conviction since both arose from the same single gunshot.

The trial court properly admitted evidence of three prior acts as intrinsic evidence woven into the story of the crime, rather than as evidence governed by the separate 'other acts' rule, and trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to admissible evidence; however, the felony murder and aggravated assault sentences must be vacated because they were legally redundant with the malice murder conviction.

The ruling shows Georgia courts can let juries hear about a defendant's other crimes when they explain motive and context, even without a formal ruling under the usual other-acts evidence rule. It also reinforces that appellate courts will fix illegal double sentences even when no one raises the issue.

Affirmed in part and vacated in part

1. The court explained that evidence of other bad acts can be admitted as 'intrinsic evidence,' meaning it is so connected to the charged crime that it completes the story for the jury, without needing to satisfy Georgia's separate rule for admitting other-crimes evidence (Rule 404(b)).
2. Applying that standard, the court found the shooting of Tate explained why she was afraid of and stayed loyal to Heade, the murder of Brennan explained why the couple was driving a stolen minivan and fleeing from Alabama to Georgia, and the robbery of Heather Crane explained why they needed money and continued to evade police.
3. The court weighed the value of this evidence against the risk of unfair prejudice under Georgia's evidence-balancing rule (OCGA § 24-4-403), concluding that because the trial judge gave the jury limiting instructions about how to use the evidence, the value of understanding the full story outweighed any unfairness.
4. Because Heade's own lawyer had agreed at trial that one of these incidents, the shooting of Tate, could be admitted, and because that evidence was legally admissible anyway, the court found the lawyer was not constitutionally deficient for not objecting to it.
5. Reviewing sentencing on its own even though no one appealed it, the court applied the rule that when a defendant is found guilty of both malice murder and felony murder for the same victim, the felony murder count is legally void surplusage and must be vacated.
6. The court also applied the rule against convicting someone of both murder and aggravated assault based on the very same single act, finding no evidence of a separate, deliberate gap in time between an injury and the fatal shot, so the aggravated assault conviction had to be merged into the murder conviction.

• murder conviction
• prior acts evidence
• ineffective assistance of counsel
• sentence merger
• felony murder