--- title: Hill v. State collection: opinions id: S20A0804 cite_as: Hill v. State, 309 Ga. 521 (2020) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20A0804 md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20A0804.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20A0804/text source_url: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10367416/hill-v-state/ date: 2020-08-10 status: published corpus_version: opinions-2026-09-14 license: Public record of the Supreme Court of Georgia, via CourtListener and the court's own website; see about.md publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/2020.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20A0725.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20A0946.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/index.md omitted: opinion extras omitted_chars: 1837 omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20A0804.md?full=1 docket: S20A0804 citation: 309 Ga. 521 court: Supreme Court of Georgia case_type: criminal appeal authoring_justice: Melton disposition: Affirmed vote: All the Justices concur word_count: 814 date_filed_source: courtlistener citations: - 847 S.E.2d 146 record_source: courtlistener legal_areas: - criminal law upstream_id: "10367416" summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5 --- # Hill v. State Supreme Court of Georgia, docket S20A0804, filed 2020-08-10, 309 Ga. 521. ## Opinion 309 Ga. 521 FINAL COPY S20A0804. HILL v. THE STATE. MELTON, Chief Justice. Following a January 4-5, 2016 jury trial, Garren Arnez Hill was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery, and various other offenses in connection with the robbery of a convenience store and the shooting death of store clerk Ajit Kumar Dwivedi.1 On appeal, Hill contends only that the evidence presented 1 On January 20, 2015, Hill was indicted for malice murder, four counts of felony murder (predicated on armed robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary in the second degree, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon), aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary in the second degree, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. At his January 2016 trial, Hill was found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to life in prison for malice murder and two terms of five years to be served consecutively to the malice murder count but concurrent with one another for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of firearm by convicted felon. The trial court purported to merge the felony murder counts into the malice murder count for sentencing purposes, but these counts were vacated by operation of law. Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (4) (434 SE2d 479) (1993). The trial court merged the remaining verdicts into the malice murder conviction. It appears that the trial court should not have merged the burglary verdict into the malice murder conviction, Favors v. State, 296 Ga. 842, 848 (770 SE2d 855) (2015), but that ruling has not been challenged on appeal. See Dixon v. State, 302 Ga. 691, 696-698 (808 SE2d 696) (2017). Hill timely filed a motion for new trial on at trial was insufficient to support his convictions. We affirm. When evaluating the sufficiency of evidence, “the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime[s] beyond a reasonable doubt.” (Emphasis omitted.) Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307, 319 (III) (B) (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). On appeal, “this Court does not re-weigh the evidence or resolve conflicts in testimony, but instead defers to the jury’s assessment of the weight and credibility of the evidence.” (Citation omitted.) Curinton v. State, 283 Ga. 226, 228 (657 SE2d 824) (2008). Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence presented at trial reveals that, on August 24, 2014, Hill, a convicted felon, walked into a Big Brother 2 Food Mart in Fulton County, brandished a handgun, and hit the unarmed store clerk, Dwivedi, in January 7, 2016, and, following a May 30, 2019 hearing, the motion was denied on the same date. Hill filed a timely notice of appeal on June 11, 2019, which he amended on September 11, 2019, and his appeal was docketed to the April 2020 term of this Court and submitted for a decision on the briefs. the head with the handgun. Hill then shot Dwivedi multiple times, killing him, and stepped over Dwivedi’s body to grab money from the cash register before leaving the store. The incident was captured on video by the store’s security camera, and Hill’s uncovered face is clearly visible throughout the video. Two witnesses who knew Hill and who saw the video on the news recognized him as the person in the video committing the crimes. Hill was arrested, and he confessed to police that he shot Dwivedi and robbed cash from the convenience store. This evidence was more than sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find Hill guilty of all of the crimes for which he was convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. See, e.g., Howell v. State, 307 Ga. 865, 870-873 (1) (b) (838 SE2d 839) (2020) (evidence was sufficient to support murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery convictions where defendant confessed crimes to others and made statements to police incriminating himself, and where surveillance video showed defendant walking in the direction of the place where crimes took place); Velasco v. State, 306 Ga. 888, 891 (1) (b) (834 SE2d 21) (2019) (evidence was “easily sufficient” to sustain murder conviction where defendant admitted to police that he beat the victim with a hammer and where crime scene blood evidence and victim’s injuries were consistent with brutal beating and dragging). Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur. DECIDED AUGUST 10, 2020. Murder. Fulton County Superior Court. Before Judge Newkirk. Ryan C. Locke, for appellant. Paul L. Howard, Jr., District Attorney, Lyndsey H. Rudder, Tristan W. Gillespie, Assistant District Attorneys; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Leslie A. Coots, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee. ## Summaries written by Georgia Commons The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the opinion above and is not part of the court's opinion. Quote the opinion, not the summary. The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder and armed robbery convictions of a man who shot and killed a Fulton County convenience store clerk, finding the video, confession, and witness identification evidence more than enough to support the jury's verdict. ### Plain-language summary Garren Arnez Hill was convicted by a Fulton County jury of malice murder, armed robbery, and other crimes after he walked into a convenience store, hit the clerk with a handgun, shot him multiple times, and took money from the register before leaving. The whole incident was captured on the store's security camera, two people who knew Hill recognized him from the video, and Hill later confessed to police that he shot the clerk and robbed the store. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia, Hill argued only that the evidence at trial was not enough to support his convictions. The court disagreed, holding that the security video, eyewitness identifications, and his own confession gave the jury more than enough evidence to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on every count. ### Holding, as summarized The evidence, including surveillance video clearly showing Hill's face committing the crimes, witness identifications, and Hill's confession to police, was legally sufficient for a rational jury to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder, armed robbery, and the related offenses. ### Disposition Affirmed. All the Justices concur. ### Why it matters The ruling shows that a clear security video combined with a defendant's own confession and witness identification is generally enough to withstand a sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge, reinforcing how Georgia appellate courts defer to jury verdicts in violent crime cases like this one. > The summarized reasoning, checked quotes, suggested questions, and the CourtListener opinion records (1,837 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S20A0804.md?full=1