Summary
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Jerrick Atkinson’s convictions arising from the shooting death of Wayne Edwards, including malice murder, aggravated assault, attempted armed robbery, and firearm offenses. The court held that the evidence was sufficient, rejected Atkinson’s trial-error and ineffective-assistance claims, and found no plain error in the jury instructions or handling of jury questions. It vacated the conviction and sentencing merger involving possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, but did not require resentencing.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the evidence was sufficient to support Atkinson's convictions.
- Whether the trial court improperly merged the possession-of-a-firearm-by-a-convicted-felon count and the possession-of-a-firearm-during-the-commission-of-a-felony count for sentencing purposes.
- Whether alleged prosecutorial misconduct, evidentiary errors, jury-voir-dire issues, closing-argument issues, and other trial errors were preserved for appellate review.
- Whether the trial court committed plain error in its jury instructions concerning armed robbery, the State's burden to prove the indictment's material allegations, and the jury's evaluation of witnesses.
- Whether the sidebar conversation in the jury's presence and the trial court's response to jury questions required a mistrial or otherwise constituted improper commentary on the evidence.
- Whether Atkinson received ineffective assistance of trial counsel.
Holdings
- The evidence was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find Atkinson guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of all offenses for which he was convicted.
- The possession-of-a-firearm-by-a-convicted-felon count could not merge into the felony-murder or malice-murder counts, and the possession-of-a-firearm-during-the-commission-of-a-felony count should have merged into the use-of-a-firearm-by-a-convicted-felon count.
- The court vacated the improper firearm-count merger and the conviction for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, but remand for resentencing was unnecessary.
- The alleged prosecutorial misconduct, similar-transaction, voir-dire, closing-argument, evidentiary, and other trial errors not supported by a proper contemporaneous objection were waived on appeal.
- Atkinson failed to establish plain error in the trial court's jury instructions.
- The sidebar conversation in the jury's presence did not require a mistrial, and the trial court acted within its discretion by recharging the jury on felony murder and attempted armed robbery in response to the jury's questions.
- Atkinson failed to establish ineffective assistance of trial counsel.
Key quotations
“First, there must be an error or defect — some sort of deviation from a legal rule — that has not been intentionally relinquished or abandoned, i.e., affirmatively waived.” (523)
“possession of a firearm by a convicted felon does not merge into a conviction for malice murder.” (521)
“In order to succeed on his claim of ineffective assistance, [Atkinson] must prove both that his trial counsel’s performance was deficient and that there is a reasonable probability that the trial result would have been different, if not for the deficient performance.” (525)
Factual background
At approximately midnight on December 13, 2008, Wayne Edwards was shot multiple times at close range outside an El Ranchero restaurant after an attempted theft of his wallet. Two firearms were found near Atkinson, including the Mac 10 used in the shooting and a Bersa 9 millimeter bearing Atkinson's palm print; Atkinson also suffered a gunshot wound to his leg. Atkinson gave conflicting accounts, including telling his cousin that he had shot the victim in the face, and the State introduced evidence of two prior armed-robbery incidents. The jury convicted Atkinson of malice murder, aggravated assault, attempted armed robbery, firearm offenses, and related crimes.
Procedural history
Atkinson was indicted in Fulton County on murder, assault, attempted armed robbery, firearm, and related offenses. Following a December 2010 jury trial, he was convicted on all counts and sentenced as a recidivist to life without parole plus thirty years. The trial court granted an out-of-time appeal in 2014, denied Atkinson's motion for new trial after a 2015 hearing, and Atkinson appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia. The Supreme Court affirmed the convictions in part but vacated the improper firearm-count merger and one firearm conviction.
Remand instructions
No remand for resentencing was required. The judgment was affirmed as to the convictions and sentence except that the improper firearm-count merger was vacated and the possession-of-a-firearm-during-the-commission-of-a-felony conviction was vacated.