Summary
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Jaworski Dune Kellam’s convictions for malice murder and cruelty to children arising from the fatal blunt-force injuries inflicted on a seventeen-month-old child. The court held that the evidence was legally sufficient and that the trial court properly refused to instruct the jury on accident and involuntary manslaughter because those defenses were not supported by the evidence.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support Kellam's convictions for malice murder and cruelty to children.
- Whether the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on the affirmative defense of accident.
- Whether the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on involuntary manslaughter based on the commission of a lawful act in an unlawful manner.
Holdings
- The evidence was legally sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Kellam fatally injured the child and was guilty of malice murder and cruelty to children.
- The trial court properly refused to give an accident instruction because the evidence did not reasonably raise that defense.
- The trial court properly refused to instruct the jury on involuntary manslaughter based on the commission of a lawful act in an unlawful manner.
Key quotations
“Since accident was not reasonably raised by the evidence, the trial court did not err by failing to give a charge on that defense.” (at 523)
“[Appellant’s] conduct, as related by him, comes so plainly within the definition of the crime of ‘reckless conduct’ that it cannot qualify as a ‘lawful act.’” (at 529-530)
Factual background
Kellam was caring for seventeen-month-old A’Trevia Davis after her mother left the child with him. Kellam told witnesses that he had played with the child by throwing or bouncing her on a bed, later found her unresponsive, and sought help. Medical evidence showed severe blunt-force abdominal trauma, internal bleeding, and injuries inconsistent with CPR, a fall from the bed, or the described playful bouncing.
Procedural history
A Laurens County grand jury indicted Kellam for malice murder, felony murder predicated on cruelty to children, and cruelty to children. Following a 2007 jury trial, he was convicted on all counts; the felony-murder conviction was vacated as a matter of law, and he received life without parole for malice murder and a concurrent twenty-year sentence for cruelty to children. The trial court denied his motion for new trial in 2009 and later granted an out-of-time appeal in 2014. The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed.