Cohen v. State, 275 Ga. 528

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Jeremine Jerome Cohen's convictions for two counts of malice murder and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The court held that the evidence was sufficient and rejected challenges concerning alleged character evidence, crime-scene photographs and video, and the jury's use of a transcript while listening to an interview recording.

Holdings

1. The evidence, including multiple eyewitness accounts and corroborating circumstantial evidence, was sufficient for the jury to find Cohen guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the malice murders and related offenses, even though no witness identified him at the crime scene and the firearm was not recovered.
2. Cohen could not challenge the admission of testimony concerning his prior possession or display of a firearm because the testimony was elicited from his own witness on cross-examination and Cohen made no objection.
3. The crime-scene videotape and photographs depicting the victim's body were admissible because they were relevant to show the nature and extent of the wounds and the location of the body, and the duplicative or inflammatory nature of the evidence did not require exclusion.
4. The trial court did not err by providing jurors with a transcript of an audiotaped interview as a listening aid where the court instructed that the transcript was not evidence, identified the audio recording as the evidence, collected the transcripts afterward, and did not send them into the jury room.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support Cohen's convictions for the two malice murders and related firearm offenses.
2. Whether the trial court improperly admitted testimony that Cohen possessed or displayed a firearm several weeks before the murders as impermissible bad-character evidence.
3. Whether the trial court improperly admitted a crime-scene videotape and still photographs as duplicative, inflammatory, or prejudicial.
4. Whether the trial court improperly allowed jurors to use a transcript of an audiotaped interview while listening to the tape during trial.

Disposition

affirmed