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Found 70 matching documents.
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 21, 2023
State v. Wilson
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed a trial court's decision to throw out evidence from a murder suspect's cell phones, ruling the search warrant let police grab 'any and all' data without limiting the search to evidence of the crime.
PINSON, Justice, concurring. We need to talk about cell phones. In Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (134 SCt 2473, 189 LE2d 430) (2014), the United States Supreme Court took a small step down the road of applying the Fourth Amendment to the modern cell phone. Riley addressed the question whether the police could, without a warrant, search digital...
Riley rejected this understanding of cell phones. Indeed, the Riley Court supposed treating cell phones like other physical items that could be found on a person was “like saying a ride on horseback is materially indistinguishable from a flight to the moon. Both are ways of getting from point A to point B, but little else justifies lumping them together.”...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 11, 2023
Prodigies Child Care Management, LLC v. Cotton
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the 'special circumstances exception' used by the Court of Appeals for lunch-break and commuting car accidents is not a real separate legal rule, but just a way of applying the ordinary test for when an employer can be sued for an employee's actions.
unpaid lunch break during her work day, and on January 26, she used her lunch break to perform in a puppet show so that she could earn extra credit in one of her courses. Earlier that day, Bouie told her manager that she would return from her lunch break “a little bit late,” likely “a little after 2[:00 p.m.].” She clocked out for her lunch break at 12:53...
In addition, the amended complaint alleged, and Cotton later drivers from holding a cell phone in their hands, see OCGA § 40-6-241, was not in effect at the time of the accident. See Ga. L. 2018, p. 127, § 4. 3 The amended complaint also alleged a claim of negligent training and supervision against University Childcare. That claim is not at issue here, so...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 31, 2023
Knox v. State of Georgia
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a lawsuit by five University System professors challenging Georgia's 2017 'campus carry' law was moot, because the Board of Regents itself adopted a policy allowing guns on campus consistent with that law.
5 See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. VIII (“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but the General Assembly shall have power to prescribe the manner in which arms may be borne.”); Ga. L. 1994, p. 1012, § 4 (adding public or private technical schools, vocational schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions...
10 In pertinent part, OCGA § 16-11-127.1 (c) (2017) as amended provided: The provisions of this Code section [making it unlawful for any person to carry or possess any weapon while within a school safety zone, at a school function, or on a bus or other transportation furnished by a school] shall not apply to: ... (20) (A) Any weapons carry license holder...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 21, 2023
MUSE v. THE STATE (Three Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the murder and gang convictions of three men involved in a shootout at an Atlanta gas station, rejecting challenges to the evidence, jury procedures, and severance of their joint trial.
Sergeant Lakea Gaither testified that she had been a detective in the gang unit of the Atlanta Police Department for over seven years and had encountered over a thousand gang members during that time. She testified that the Bloods are a criminal street gang acting within Fulton County and that the “Nine Trey Bloods,” nicknamed “Billy Bad Ass,” are a sect of...
In addition, Investigator Jared Watkins testified that he performed a “phone dump” of Muse’s cell phone, which involved using a software program to extract information from the phone. The messages that Watkins extracted from Muse’s cell phone showed that Muse received an incoming message on November 2, 2014, that said that “[h]e who walks by these...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 7, 2023
Wilson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Antonio Wilson's felony murder conviction, ruling that a marijuana purchase gone wrong was a legally sufficient basis for the murder charge and that the trial court handled the evidence and jury instructions correctly.
Lewis picked up Griffin’s bookbag and got back in the car. On the way back to Cayo’s house, Wilson took the SIM card from Griffin’s phone and Cayo threw the phone out the window. When they arrived at Cayo’s house, Wilson, Cayo, and Lewis divided up the marijuana from the bookbag. Then they burned the bookbag and talked about selling the murder weapon....
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 7, 2023
Rucker v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a man's murder conviction for a fatal home invasion in Southwest Atlanta, rejecting his arguments about a missing jury instruction and a delayed trial.
Rucker directed Finch to lie on the floor, and Finch begged Rucker not to kill his wife. Patricia continued screaming, and she “could see where [Rucker] had shot [Finch] on his stomach,” and there was “[a] lot of blood” and “[a] big hole.” Patricia begged Rucker not to kill them, and Rucker told her to “shut up” and “lie down on the floor.” Patricia...
4 Patrick Pinson, the Finches’ next door neighbor, testified that he “was According to Patricia, she and Finch also stayed in their bedroom for about 15 minutes after the shootings to make sure the intruders were gone, and then, they jumped up and ran into the living room, looking for Printup. Patricia testified that, even though Finch was “bleeding so...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · December 19, 2023
Bates v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder-related convictions of three men involved in a fatal shooting during a robbery, rejecting challenges to the evidence, a jury instruction on conspiracy, jailhouse informant testimony, and a mistrial denial.
James called 911 at 1:16 p.m. Later, when shown photo arrays, James identified Southern as the man with the gun and Bates as the man with dreadlocks who had been speaking to Hagood.2 Detective Scott Demeester, the lead investigator on the case, arrived at the scene at around 1:45 p.m. Demeester contacted Hagood’s wife, who told him that Hagood normally...
The records from Rayshon Smith’s cell phone showed that someone used it several hours after it was stolen to call MetroPCS customer service to unlock it. After it was unlocked, the phone was used to place and receive calls and text messages to and from people that phone had never been used to contact before it was stolen. The new contacts included Southern,...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 31, 2023
Perez v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Geovanni Perez's felony murder conviction in a Gwinnett County drug-robbery shooting, ruling the evidence was sufficient and that police search warrants for his phone and home were valid.
11 In support of his probable-cause claim, Perez relies on United States v. Griffith, which held that a warrant authorizing a search of the appellant’s apartment for cell phones, among other things, was not supported by probable cause, because the affidavit underlying the warrant failed to set forth any facts showing that the appellant owned a cell phone,...
the car keys, the affidavit underlying the warrant attested that investigators did not locate “the keys and key fob to [Gardner’s] Nissan Titan truck[,] which he drove to the bowling alley.” The magistrate could reasonably infer from this information that Perez took Gardner’s keys and key fob at the time of the shooting and that there was a fair probability...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 21, 2023
Greene v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Douglas County man's malice murder conviction for strangling Sheila Bryant, rejecting challenges to his statements, autopsy photos, prior-acts evidence, and jury instructions, over a three-justice dissent.
“Given the medical examiner’s testimony, the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it concluded that the autopsy photograph[s] [were] relevant under Rule 401’s broad definition.” Mitchell, 307 Ga. at 864 (3) (b). The trial court also determined that the photographs were necessary for the medical examiner to explain Bryant’s injuries, and we cannot...
14 The precise time of the searches was not included in the cell phone data. Assuming that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting this photograph of Greene’s cell phone into evidence, we conclude that any such abuse of discretion was harmless error and “requires reversal only if it harms” Greene’s “substantial rights.” Roberts v. State, 315 Ga....
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 16, 2023
State v. Britton
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed a trial court order that had thrown out cell phone location evidence in a Fulton County murder case, ruling the search warrant affidavit was neither false nor invalid.
The Roswell officers obtained the license plate number for the black Dodge Charger from the LPRs and used that information to identify the vehicle’s owner as James Travious English, Britton’s co- defendant. The police later obtained a search warrant to obtain “call detail records with historical cell tower and geographical location data” for English’s cell...
Following a hearing, the trial court issued an order granting the motion to suppress based on its findings that the Affidavit contained both a material misrepresentation and a discrepancy that undercut the Warrant’s validity. Specifically, the trial court found that the Affidavit materially misrepresented that English was in “extensive communication with...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · July 5, 2023
Wood v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Bobby Wood Jr.'s felony murder conviction for shooting Aaron Skinner, ruling that any errors at trial were harmless because the evidence against his self-defense claim was strong.
On the morning after the shooting, officers went back to investigate the scene, which was left unsecured overnight. Officers observed three bullet strikes in the ditch area. Officers also observed four additional bullet strikes outside of the ditch and in the road and general area. Further, the officers found in the general area a total of seven shell...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 6, 2023
Green v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Tarus Malike Green's felony murder conviction in a Chatham County shooting, rejecting his claims about the evidence, jury access to cell phone records, and a witness's recorded statement.
2. Green also asserts that the trial court erred by allowing the jury during deliberations to review cell phone records that had been admitted as evidence but had not been published or explained to the jury during the trial. Even though the cell phone records were never published or explained in detail to the jury, the CDs containing the records were moved...
Green also told officers that Hills took from Bivin’s car a green rifle, which was the gun Bivin planned to sell. Green claimed that he later bought the gun from Garnell Quarterman, Hills’s brother, and then resold it. Quarterman testified that he did not sell this gun to Green. The gun was never found. 2 The State indicted Hills on four counts of murder...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 21, 2023
Reese v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fulton County man's murder conviction, rejecting his claims that the trial judge should have instructed jurors on self-defense and accomplice testimony and that his trial lawyer was ineffective.
Among other things, fifteen one-dollar bills2 and Ringer’s cell phone were found inside the car. No gun was found inside the car or at the scene of the shooting. A pack of cigarettes with Reese’s fingerprints on it and a few cigarette butts were found near Reese’s SUV. In Reese’s driveway, officers found a single key. And in Reese’s front yard, officers...
Ringer’s phone also showed various text messages and phone calls with Reese’s phone from around 12:30 a.m. until around 1:30 a.m. on the night of the shooting; the text messages were about Ringer having sex with one of Reese’s friends and Ringer arranging for someone to have sex with Reese, each in exchange for money. The text messages showed that neither...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 21, 2023
HENDERSON v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the murder convictions of Demetre Mason and Frankland Henderson, rejecting challenges to trial evidence, a co-defendant's statement, and the decision to try them together.
Brown instructed everyone to delete any pictures they had with Williams on Instagram. Harrell and Shardow rifled through Wil- liams’s purse and then burned it. The following day, Harrell and Singleton threw away some of Williams’s other belongings at an el- ementary school down the street. (b) At 4:14 a.m. on May 19, 2014, Alyssia Smith, who lived near the...
(d) Investigator Waine Pinckney, who was qualified as an ex- pert in street gangs, testified extensively at trial. Investigator Pinckney first explained generally about gang structure and culture. He said that within the larger Bloods gang were a number of subsets, including the subset involved in this case, the Nine Trey Gangsters. Nine Trey Gangsters,...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 7, 2023
Williams v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fulton County man's felony murder conviction, ruling that neither the cell phone location warrant used against him nor the jury instructions given at trial amounted to plain error.
2. Williams contends that the trial court plainly erred by admitting CSLI related to Williams’s cell phone because the search warrant authorizing the seizure of Williams’s phone records6 lacked 6 For the records to be searched, the warrant states the following: Verizon Telephone Number 704-718-8366 from the dates of February 27, 2015 through March 9, 2015....
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,” and it requires that a search warrant “particularly describ[e] the places to be searched.” U. S. Const. Amend. IV. See Bryant v. State, 301 Ga. 617, 619 (2) (800...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 21, 2023
Young v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Tomarkus Young's felony murder conviction in the shooting death of Richard Anderson, rejecting his claims about insufficient evidence, jury selection, and ineffective legal representation.
(c) Young next asserts that trial counsel failed to timely request that his motion to suppress cell phone evidence be placed on the trial court’s calendar for a hearing. Young, however, provides no citation to the record in support of this claim, and it does not appear that a particularized motion to suppress cell phone evidence was ever filed in this case....
Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the evidence at trial showed that on February 23, 2018, Anderson purchased a .40-caliber handgun, which he showed to several people gathered at a barbershop. When Young saw the handgun, he offered to purchase it. Anderson told him it was not for sale but that he had another gun he could sell. Two...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · April 18, 2023
Priester v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Cobb County man's murder conviction for shooting a restaurant worker at a gas station, ruling that even if some prior-crime evidence was wrongly admitted, it did not affect the verdict given the strength of the other evidence.
Officers applied for and received a search warrant for the Avalanche and Appellant’s cell phone records. Officers did not lift any fingerprints from the Avalanche. However, the cell phone records revealed that Appellant’s phone pinged off a cell tower located in McDonough in the approximate vicinity of Holland’s house around 7:40 p.m. on the night of the...
Here, the evidence against Appellant was strong. Although Appellant argued at trial that someone else shot the victim, the jury was shown the gas station surveillance video, which captured the shooter’s face, profile, and distinctive car; heard unrebutted testimony that, on the night of the shooting, Appellant was in possession of the green Avalanche shown...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 19, 2023
Kennebrew v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Phillip Kennebrew's murder conviction from his second trial, ruling that a dead witness's testimony from his first trial was properly admitted and that any errors in other hearsay rulings were harmless.
testimony. Appellant also challenges the trial court’s admission of hearsay statements made by the victim, which were admitted under the residual hearsay exception, OCGA § 24-8-807. We affirm for the reasons set out below. 1. The evidence at trial showed the following. In October 2011, Alexander lived with his friend, Darrious Oliver, in a one-bedroom...
According to the cell-phone records, in the early morning hours of October 18, Babbage’s phone sent text messages to both Appellant’s and Samuel Hall’s phones and received responses from 3 Tew testified at Appellant’s first trial. Because she had died before Appellant was retried, her testimony from the first trial was read to the jury during Appellant’s...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 24, 2023
ROOKS v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder and gang convictions of Joshua Rooks and Quatez Clark for their roles in a planned killing of Christopher Dean, finding the evidence and trial rulings sound.
marijuana from Dean and Dye. Cell phone records showed that at 11:28 a.m. on October 17, 2016, Lockett’s phone called a phone that was associated with Green, a member of the Gangster Disciples. A few minutes later, Dean’s phone called Lockett’s phone. One of Dean’s friends testified that when he visited Dean at his house in Lithia Springs that morning, Dean...
16 The prosecutor also confusingly argued that the other-act evidence showed that Clark had knowledge “that [the co-defendants’] action[ ] of intending to rob . . . Dean and all their other acts, sale of narcotics, et cetera, would be probative to show that they acted with knowledge.” summarily ruled that the evidence of the December 14 incident was...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 2, 2023
Ingram v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Tyree Ingram's murder conviction in a Milledgeville drug deal shooting, ruling that even where trial counsel made mistakes, the evidence of guilt was too strong for those mistakes to have changed the outcome.
7 Special Agent Hargrove was admitted as an expert at trial in the areas of crime scene examination and processing and bullet flight-path reconstruction. 8 A firearms examiner for the GBI testified that these shell casings were fired from a .40-caliber pistol, “most likely a Smith & Wesson.” in particular, a semi-automatic pistol.” According to the medical...
In addition to providing the written statement, Ingram told Detective Butch that Greene had given him Brown’s cell phone number, and Ingram had set up the meeting with Brown to buy drugs. Ingram admitted to communicating with Brown on September 12 and to having deleted several text messages between them, as well as a program he used to text Brown from his...
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