Drennon v. State

Carlos Drennon was convicted by a Fulton County jury of malice murder and participating in criminal street gang activity after evidence showed he and his associates in a robbery crew called the International Robbing Club plotted to kill Randy Griffin, a man who had identified Drennon as one of his attackers in an earlier robbery. Drennon appealed, arguing the evidence was too thin because he was in jail when Griffin was actually shot, that the trial judge failed to properly weigh the evidence in denying his new trial motion, and that he was unlawfully excluded from private conversations between the judge and lawyers during jury selection. The Supreme Court of Georgia found the recorded jail phone calls and testimony from fellow gang members were enough for a jury to conclude Drennon encouraged the killing, and that the trial judge properly exercised her discretion in denying a new trial. But because Drennon raised his claim about being excluded from bench conferences for the first time on appeal, and the existing trial record does not show whether he had a right to be present or waived it, the court sent that one issue back to the trial court to hold a hearing and decide it first.

The evidence, including recorded jail calls and gang-related testimony, was legally sufficient to support Drennon's convictions for malice murder and criminal street gang activity, and the trial court properly exercised its discretion in denying a new trial on the general grounds; however, because the record does not show whether Drennon was excluded from bench conferences he had a right to attend, that claim must be decided by the trial court first.

The ruling confirms that coded jailhouse phone calls and circumstantial evidence about a gang's motive can support a murder conviction even when the defendant was incarcerated at the time of the killing. It also reinforces that Georgia trial courts must build a clear record of bench conferences so defendants' right to be present can be properly reviewed on appeal.

Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded with direction

1. The court applied the constitutional sufficiency standard, which asks whether a rational jury could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt viewing evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and found the recorded jail calls and gang testimony met that bar even though Drennon was jailed when Griffin was killed.
2. Under Georgia's circumstantial evidence statute (O.C.G.A. § 24-14-6), which requires that proven facts exclude every other reasonable explanation besides guilt, the court found the jury could reasonably reject Drennon's theory that gang members killed Griffin only to steal his jewelry without his encouragement.
3. Applying party-to-a-crime principles (O.C.G.A. § 16-2-20), the court explained a defendant need not pull the trigger to be guilty of murder if he shares a common criminal intent with the shooters, and found Drennon's coded jail conversations showed he encouraged the killing.
4. For the gang activity conviction, the court applied the Street Gang Act elements requiring gang association, a predicate violent act, and intent to further the gang's interests, and found testimony about Drennon's membership, his role in an earlier robbery and kidnapping, and his encouragement of Griffin's killing satisfied each element.
5. On the general-grounds new trial claim, the court explained a trial judge acting as the 'thirteenth juror' must weigh evidence and credibility but need not explicitly recite that discretion, and found the trial court's order referencing the correct statutes and standard showed it exercised that discretion properly.
6. On the right-to-be-present claim, the court explained that under its precedent in Champ v. State, a claim raised for the first time on appeal must be remanded unless it can be easily rejected on the existing record, and because the transcript did not show whether Drennon was present or waived his rights during unrecorded bench conferences, the claim could not be resolved on appeal.

• murder conviction
• criminal street gang activity
• jail phone calls
• right to be present
• jury selection