18 results for 'judge:"Bethel"'.
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder, aggravated assault and a firearm offense. Although defendant was acquitted of the aggravated assault of one victim, his convictions for the murder and aggravated assault of a second victim and the aggravated assault of a third victim did not render the verdicts repugnant. The jury did not make an affirmative finding that defendant did not fire his gun at the victims' car. Defendant's trial counsel did not perform deficiently in failing to move to suppress evidence of defendant's phone records. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: May 14, 2024, Case #: S24A0528, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder, Assault
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and firearm offenses. Any error the trial court committed in giving an incorrect jury instruction on an exception to the justification defense was harmless in light of the evidence showing that defendant more than likely did not act in self-defense when he shot the unarmed victim. Defendant failed to show that his trial counsel performed deficiently. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: S24A0396, Categories: Murder, Jury Instructions
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion to suppress evidence found pursuant to a search warrant for his phone records. The warrant affidavit established probable cause to support the issuance of the warrant based on defendant's behavior, his interactions with police and his connections to the victim, his wife, and the home where the murder occurred. Defendant was using his phone around the time of the murder and the magistrate judge could reasonably infer that his phone records would contain information related to his involvement in the crime. Defendant's trial counsel was not deficient for failing to challenge the warrant based on the claim that it was insufficiently particularized. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: March 14, 2024, Case #: S23A1063, Categories: Murder, Search
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and correctly denied his motion for a new trial. In light of the strong evidence of his guilt, defendant failed to show that the trial outcome was likely impacted by the admission of police body camera footage showing the wounded victim into evidence. Defendant failed to show that his trial counsel's performance was deficient or that the admission of a witness's videotaped statement to investigators was improper. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: S24A0148, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder
[Consolidated.] J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendants of murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Defendants failed to show that their trial attorneys performed deficiently or that they were prejudiced by their attorneys' alleged deficiencies. Multiple eyewitnesses testified that they saw one defendant shoot the victim at the murder scene. Eyewitnesses testified that they either saw the co-defendant shoot the victim or saw the co-defendant with a gun at the murder scene. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: S23A0854, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder
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J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly denied the company's request for mandamus relief and correctly dismissed the action against the county and county officials arising from a dispute over the rules dictating the height of a wall surrounding a subdivision. The action should have been brought exclusively against and in the name of the state or local government. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: S24A0309, Categories: Injunction
J. Bethel finds that the trial court improperly granted defendant's motion to suppress evidence of his refusal to submit to a blood test after his DUI arrest. The trial court incorrectly failed to evaluate defendant's evidentiary argument that exclusion of the evidence was warranted under a statute before reaching his constitutional challenge to the admissibility of blood test refusal evidence. Vacated.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: S23A1118, Categories: Evidence, Dui
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and other related offenses. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions, including eyewitness testimony identifying defendant as the shooter. Defendant failed to show that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's allegedly deficient performance. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: S24A0010, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder, Battery
[Consolidated.] J. Bethel finds that the trial court improperly quashed indictments charging defendants--six people employed as jailers at the Fulton County Jail--with murder and other offenses. Defendants allegedly beat, pepper-sprayed and repeatedly shocked inmate Antonio May with a taser, causing his death. The trial court incorrectly found that defendants were entitled to pre-indictment notice based on protections afforded to peace officers under the statute. Defendants' duty to control and supervise inmates in the jail did not constitute a duty to maintain the public peace within the community at large. The trial court therefore incorrectly deemed defendants peace officers. Reversed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: October 11, 2023, Case #: S23A0702, Categories: Murder
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder, aggravated stalking, kidnapping and other offenses. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's stalking conviction, including evidence that defendant was aware his final divorce decree incorporated a permanent restraining order and that he was prohibited from contacting the victim. The trial court did not commit any error by refusing to provide an interpreter to facilitate the stalking victim's testimony. The victim did not request an interpreter and the absence of one did not render the trial fundamentally unfair. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: October 11, 2023, Case #: S23A0547, Categories: Murder, Kidnapping
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder, aggravated assault and a firearm offense. The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion for a directed verdict because there was evidence allowing the jury to find that defendant was a knowing participant when he started a dispute with the victim. Defendant's trial counsel was not deficient for failing to request a jury charge on good character evidence. Defendant failed to show that the trial outcome would have been different if the jury had received the charge. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: September 19, 2023, Case #: S23A0670, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder, Jury Instructions
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and other offenses. Autopsy photos and pictures of the victim's gunshot wounds which were admitted into evidence were not unduly prejudicial to defendant. Although many of the pictures are gruesome, they rebutted defendant's claim of self-defense by showing defendant's efforts to conceal his act of shooting and killing the victim. The trial court did not commit any error by failing to recharge the jury on the lesser offenses of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter when it recharged on malice and felony murder. Defendant failed to show that his trial counsel's performance was deficient. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: September 19, 2023, Case #: A23A0433, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly dismissed defendant's extraordinary motion for a new trial following his murder conviction. However, the trial court incorrectly construed the motion as one for an out-of-time appeal. An extraordinary motion for new trial is not the proper vehicle for ineffective assistance of counsel claims because an alternative remedy exists in the form of habeas corpus. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: August 21, 2023, Case #: S23A0892, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Murder
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and concealing the death of another. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions, including evidence that defendant stabbed the victim more than 20 times with a knife and a screwdriver and took extensive measures to hide the victim's body. The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion to suppress incriminating statements he made during his custodial interview with police. Defendant did not unequivocally invoke his right to remain silent by refusing to respond to questions. Defendant failed to show that the clumsily-worded verdict form probably affected the trial outcome. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: August 21, 2023, Case #: S23A0601, Categories: Murder
[Consolidated.] J. Bethel finds that the appeals court properly upheld the trial court's ruling in favor of the injured individual in a premises liability action against CVS after he was shot in the parking lot of a CVS store. The appeals court improperly overturned the trial court's ruling denying motions for summary judgment by a restaurant owner and a security company in a separate premises liability action brought by a widow after her husband's death in an armed robbery in the restaurant's parking lot. Reasonable foreseeability of third-party criminal conduct factors into the analysis of a proprietor's duty to exercise ordinary care in keeping a premises safe. A jury could find that prior criminal acts in the CVS parking lot and other factors gave CVS reason to anticipate a criminal attack like the shooting and constituted a risk that it had a duty to account for. The jury's verdict apportioning no fault to the unknown shooter was not inconsistent. Reversed in part.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: S22G0527, Categories: Premises Liability
[Consolidated.] J. Bethel finds that the habeas court improperly vacated defendant's death sentence for murder based on a finding that defendant's trial counsel ineffectively presented evidence of defendant's alleged intellectual disability in the sentencing phase. The allegedly deficient performance of defendant's counsel was unlikely to have impacted the outcome in either phase of the trial. New evidence of defendant's intellectual functioning would probably not have caused the jury to impose a lesser sentence. However, the habeas court's final order failed to provide adequate findings of fact to allow for the resolution of some ineffective assistance claims raised by defendant related to allegedly mitigating evidence. The case is remanded to the habeas court. Reversed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: S23A0260, Categories: Death Penalty, Habeas, Ineffective Assistance
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and other offenses. Any error the trial court committed in admitting statements made by the victim as dying declarations identifying defendant as the shooter was harmless. There was evidence showing that the victim believed his death to be imminent when he first identified the shooters, including evidence that the victim was almost completely paralyzed and was aware of the seriousness of his condition. The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment for want of a speedy trial due to a 30-month delay. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: S23A0135, Categories: Murder, Speedy Trial
J. Bethel finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of murder and other offenses. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions. The trial court correctly refused to sever a charge for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute from the remaining charges against defendant because they all stemmed from his involvement in drug dealing. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Supreme Court, Judge: Bethel, Filed On: May 31, 2023, Case #: S23A0063, Categories: Drug Offender, Firearms, Murder