Jason Andrew Lopez v. State

Summary

The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed Jason Andrew Lopez’s convictions for family violence battery and family violence simple battery in part. The court upheld the admission of statements under the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing hearsay exception, declined to find plain error in the admission of prior-difficulty evidence, and found the evidence sufficient to support the convictions. It vacated three convictions for merger purposes and remanded for resentencing.

Holdings

1. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting Mallory's statements because the State proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Lopez engaged in wrongdoing, intended to procure Mallory's unavailability, and caused her unavailability.
2. Lopez was not entitled to reversal based on admission of the prior-difficulties evidence because he failed to preserve a specific objection and could not show that any alleged error probably affected the outcome of the trial.
3. The evidence was sufficient to sustain all four convictions for family violence battery and family violence simple battery.
4. The trial court erred by failing to merge Counts 2, 3, and 4 into Count 1 because all four offenses arose from one continuous criminal act committed at the same time and place and with the same criminal intent.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court properly admitted Mallory's out-of-court statements under the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing exception to the hearsay rule.
2. Whether the admission of evidence concerning three prior difficulties between Lopez and Mallory constituted reversible plain error when the objection was not preserved.
3. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions for family violence battery and family violence simple battery.
4. Whether the trial court erred by failing to merge three of Lopez's convictions into one conviction for family violence battery.

Disposition

other