GA Code § 16-10-31 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 16 - Crimes and Offenses|Chapter 10 - Offenses Against Public Administration|Article 2 - Obstruction of Public Administration and Related Offenses|§ 16-10-31. Concealing Death of Another Person

 A person who, by concealing the death of any other person, hinders a discovery of whether or not such person was unlawfully killed is guilty of a felony and upon conviction shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years, a fine of not less than $1,000.00 nor more than $5,000.00, or both.   (Code 1933, § 26-1104, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1; Ga. L. 1997, p. 923, § 1.)   Cross references.   - Disposition of dead bodies, T. 31, C. 21.   JUDICIAL DECISIONS   Victim killed out of state but concealing occurred in Georgia.    - Evidence was sufficient to convict the defendant of concealing the death of another because, notwithstanding that the victim was killed and placed in the trunk of a car in South Carolina, the undisputed evidence showed that the car was set on fire in Georgia, with the intent to conceal the victim's death. Clary v. State, 344 Ga. App. 710, 812 S.E.2d 31 (2018).   Evidence sufficient to support conviction.    - See Wilcox v. Ford, 813 F.2d 1140 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 925, 108 S. Ct. 287, 98 L. Ed. 2d 247 (1987); Carter v. State, 238 Ga. App. 632, 519 S.E.2d 717 (1999).    Evidence was sufficient to permit a rational trier of fact to find that a female defendant's infant son was born alive, had a separate and independent existence from the defendant, was murdered by the defendant, and the body subsequently concealed by the defendant, all beyond a reasonable doubt. Life v. State, 261 Ga. 709, 410 S.E.2d 421 (1991).    Evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction of concealing the death of another where there was evidence that: (1) defendant shot and killed defendant's friend after finding defendant's spouse and that friend embracing; (2) defendant forced the spouse to leave with defendant; (3) the spouse's body was found two days later near the spouse's car which had gone over a cliff; (4) the spouse had been repeatedly struck on the head with a blunt object; (5) the spouse's injuries were not consistent with being alive when the car went over the cliff; (6) defendant was found staying at the home of a friend with whom defendant had planned to leave the state; and (7) defendant, who eventually testified that the spouse had purposely driven the spouse's car over the cliff, never tried to call the police or an ambulance regarding either the spouse's or the friend whom defendant had killed. Wright v. State, 276 Ga. 454, 579 S.E.2d 214 (2003), cert. denied, 540 U.S. 1106, 124 S. Ct. 1059, 157 L. Ed. 2d 892 (2004).    Witness's testimony established that defendant sold cocaine to the victim, later struggled with the victim and the victim was shot, and defendant threatened the witness not to tell the police; the evidence was sufficient to find defendant guilty of violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act, O.C.G.A. § 16-13-20 et seq., and of concealing a death, a violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-10-31. Jackson v. State, 271 Ga. App. 278, 609 S.E.2d 207 (2005).    Evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions for concealment of a death and theft by taking as the evidence showed that defendant directed the customer of a salon defendant operated, who had a fight with a man with whom defendant had been living, to dispose of the man's body after the customer shot the man to death following an argument at defendant's home and that defendant told people that the man had left after an argument; too, the evidence showed that defendant had taken the man's sports memorabilia collection and a camera, and, thus, was guilty of theft by taking. James v. State, 274 Ga. App. 498, 618 S.E.2d 133 (2005).    Evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions of malice murder and concealing the death of another because: (1) defendant's nephew testified that defendant asked for help with "a body"; (2) the nephew noticed blood stains, evidence of a struggle, and a smell of bleach at defendant's home; (3) the victim's body was on a bed in defendant's home; (4) the nephew helped defendant roll the body in a rug and take the body to a nearby dumpster where they deposited the body; (5) authorities later determined that the victim sustained blunt force trauma to the head and died of ligature strangulation; and (6) a search of defendant's home revealed the victim's blood stains and evidence of a struggle. Ware v. State, 279 Ga. 17, 608 S.E.2d 643 (2005).    Evidence supported defendant's conviction of malice murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and concealing the death of another; the victim was shot in the back of the head with defendant's gun in the woods behind defendant's family's property, the victim's body was found in a landfill two days later, defendant's friend confided to a friend that defendant shot the victim and then called the friend to help dispose of the body, the friend confessed to a role in the concealment and secretly videotaped a conversation with defendant about the shooting and, on the tape, defendant bragged about killing the victim and demonstrated how defendant did the killing. Bragg v. State, 279 Ga. 156, 611 S.E.2d 17 (2005).    Defendant's testimony and that of others that defendant removed the victim's body from the scene of the murder established defendant's guilt to the offense of concealing the death of another. Weldon v. State, 279 Ga. 185, 611 S.E.2d 36 (2005).    Defendant's convictions for malice murder, burglary, robbery, aggravated assault, and concealing the death of another were supported by sufficient evidence because: (1) defendant broke into the office where the victim was living; (2) defendant hit the victim several times on the head and body with a pair of pliers; (3) defendant choked the victim with defendant's hands and arms, and with the pliers, until the victim was dead; (4) defendant took the victim's credit card and driver's license; and (5) defendant disposed of the victim's body. Young v. State, 280 Ga. 65, 623 S.E.2d 491 (2005).    Trial court properly denied defendant's motion for a directed verdict of acquittal on all of the charges relating to solicitation to commit two murders and solicitation to conceal the death of one of the purported murder victims as the testimony of a witness established that defendant sought that witness's aide in murdering two game wardens who had charged defendant with various hunting violations, that the witness was equipped with a tape device to record defendant's plans and those tapes were presented at trial, which detailed defendant going over the gun to be used and the manner in which the death of one victim was to be concealed. English v. State, 290 Ga. App. 378, 659 S.E.2d 783 (2008).    Trial court properly convicted defendant for concealing a death as the evidence established that defendant directed that the victim's body be left on the side of a road in a location away from the murder and verbally threatened a witness with death if the witness told the police about the crime. Duncan v. State, 283 Ga. 584, 662 S.E.2d 122 (2008).    Evidence supported convictions of malice murder, concealing a death, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. A codefendant testified that the defendant, who was jealous of one victim, shot the victims in the defendant's home, then put the bodies in the second victim's car, drove the car away, poured gasoline on the car, and set the car on fire; an officer who had known the defendant for years testified that the defendant called the officer twice about surrendering to authorities; police found blood, human tissue, shotgun pellets, part of a shotgun, and ammunition in the defendant's home, a trail of blood leading away from the house, and a shotgun shell casing and a gas can in the defendant's truck; and a cellmate testified that the defendant told the cellmate that the defendant shot two people, that the defendant inquired whether fingerprints could be retrieved from a burned vehicle, and that the defendant said that the defendant had soaked up blood on the defendant's carpet with cat litter. Hendrix v. State, 284 Ga. 420, 667 S.E.2d 597 (2008).    Evidence was sufficient to support the defendant's conviction for concealing the death of another person beyond a reasonable doubt because the defendant admitted that the defendant stabbed the victim to death in an apparent domestic dispute; a fingerprint expert identified the victim as the dead body found behind the dumpster in the defendant's apartment complex wrapped in bags, and the defendant's confession was duly corroborated. Rowe v. State, 302 Ga. App. 239, 690 S.E.2d 884 (2010).    Evidence was sufficient to support a defendant's conviction for concealing the death of another after the defendant told the victim's children and police that the victim was missing when the defendant knew where the victim was and that the victim was dead, and since the defendant removed the victim's body from the crime scene, thereby hindering the discovery that the victim had been unlawfully killed. White v. State, 287 Ga. 713, 699 S.E.2d 291 (2010).    Defendant's admission that the defendant helped the defendant's son hold down the victim as the son penetrated the victim, that the defendant rubbed the defendant's own penis against the victim and ejaculated on the victim, that the defendant put the defendant's hands over the son's as the son choked the victim, that the defendant helped dump the victim's body, and the testimony of the defendant's wife that the defendant helped undress the victim, the defendant put the defendant's mouth on the victim's penis, and the defendant attempted to put the defendant's penis in the victim's anus was sufficient to support defendant's convictions for murder, false imprisonment, two counts of aggravated child molestation, child molestation, cruelty to children in the first degree, concealing the death of another, and tampering with evidence. Edenfield v. State, 293 Ga. 370, 744 S.E.2d 738 (2013), overruled on other grounds by Willis v. State, 2018 Ga. LEXIS 685 (Ga. 2018).    Evidence was sufficient to convict the defendant of concealing a death because the jury was authorized to conclude that the defendant's statement that the defendant intended to "finish it" was evidence of the defendant's intent to conceal the murder; and the defendant's actions hindered the discovery that the victim was unlawfully killed as, while sheriff's deputies believed that the deputies were investigating a fire of undetermined origin resulting in a death, the scene was left unsecured for almost four days and witness interviews were delayed, allowing evidence to deteriorate and to be cleaned, destroyed, or moved in the interim. Horton v. State, 310 Ga. 310, 849 S.E.2d 382 (2020).   Gestational age supported evidence for conviction.    - Because the state proved that, due to the defendant's child's gestational age, the defendant gave birth to a viable child and then concealed the child's death, the evidence was sufficient to support the defendant's conviction of concealing the death of another person, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-31. Hill v. State, 292 Ga. App. 366, 664 S.E.2d 781 (2008), cert. denied, 2008 Ga. LEXIS 913 (Ga. 2008).   Evidence insufficient for conviction.    - Evidence was not sufficient to support the defendant's conviction for concealment as there was no proof that moving the adult victim to the sofa or turning off a night light in another room in any way concealed the adult victim's death or that killing the baby and preventing the baby from crying prevented the adult victim from being found sooner. Walker v. State, 296 Ga. 161, 766 S.E.2d 28 (2014).   Not lesser included offense of felony murder.    - Concealing a death, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-31, and felony murder, O.C.G.A. § 16-5-1, have entirely different elements and require proof of totally different facts, and thus, the crime of concealing a death is not included, as a matter of fact or law, in felony murder during the commission of aggravated assault; a trial court's refusal to give a requested charge on concealing the death of another as a lesser included offense of felony murder was proper. Chapman v. State, 280 Ga. 560, 629 S.E.2d 220 (2006).   Merger of counts as only one violation occurred.    - Appellant's merger claims cannot simply be deemed waived on appeal following the entry of a guilty plea, even if the appellant fails to raise the issue, and four of the appellant's five convictions for concealing the death of the appellant's girlfriend merged since only one violation occurred. Nazario v. State, 293 Ga. 480, 746 S.E.2d 109 (2013).    Because all of the defendant's acts were intended to hinder a single discovery of the single unlawful killing of the defendant's girlfriend by concealing the girlfriend's death, two of the three convictions and sentences for concealing the death of another had to be vacated. Moore v. State, 325 Ga. App. 749, 754 S.E.2d 792 (2014).   Merger of offenses not required.    - Defendant's contention that the offense of arson should merge into the offense of concealing a death was without merit because the offense of arson in the first degree was committed when a person, by means of fire or explosive, knowingly damaged the dwelling of another without that person's consent or under such circumstances that it was reasonably foreseeable that human life might be endangered; and arson required proof of facts not required by the offense of concealing a death, which required an accused to hinder a discovery of whether or not a person was unlawfully killed. Horton v. State, 310 Ga. 310, 849 S.E.2d 382 (2020).    Cited in Gaines v. Wolcott, 119 Ga. App. 313, 167 S.E.2d 366 (1969); Nunnally v. State, 235 Ga. 693, 221 S.E.2d 547 (1975); Davis v. State, 236 Ga. 804, 225 S.E.2d 241 (1976); Durham v. State, 243 Ga. 408, 254 S.E.2d 359 (1979).   RESEARCH REFERENCES   ALR.    - Attempt to conceal or dispose of body as evidence connecting accused with homicide, 2 A.L.R. 1227.   Liability in damages for withholding corpse from relatives, 48 A.L.R.3d 240.