Opinion ID: 1300381
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 1. The evidence at trial, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, showed as follows. On June 26, 2002, Krause, who was 17, was staying with her boyfriend Chesser, who was 19, at the Brantley County trailer that Krause shared with her father. Krause's father was known locally as Pill Bill, and Krause sold drugs for him out of the trailer. On the day of the crimes, Krause's father was visiting family in Florida. The victim, Carver, lived two driveways down the road, and he was friends with Krause's father. On the day of the crimes, he was working on Krause's car. He finished his work and left, but he returned to the trailer that afternoon to buy some OxyContin. Krause refused, however, because Carver had no money to pay for the drugs. Carver then left. Shortly thereafter, Krause discovered that her father's OxyContin was missing, and she suspected that Carver had taken it. Krause and Chesser then devised a plan to lure Carver back to the trailer and kill him. They discussed this plan in the presence of two friends, 17-year-old Alyssa Buchan and her boyfriend, 19-year-old James Lawrence Martino. Krause called Carver and told him that something was still wrong with her car. Carver returned to the trailer, and Krause confronted him about taking the missing OxyContin, which he denied. Despite the accusation, Carver agreed to work on Krause's car in the workshop behind his house. Carver drove back to his place, and Krause and Chesser followed him a few minutes later after changing into old clothes they could burn later and arming themselves with a small automatic pistol and a miniature baseball bat. They beat Carver savagely with the bat and then killed him with a single gunshot to the back of the neck. Krause and Chesser had difficulty getting Carver's body into the trunk of Krause's car. Krause ran back to the trailer to enlist the help of Buchan and Martino, but they refused. Krause ran back to the Carver residence to assist Chesser, and they eventually succeeded in dragging his body to the car and heaving it into the trunk. They drove to a remote area, where they dumped the body and covered it with tree branches. As they were leaving, Krause's car got stuck in the muddy sand. Krause and Chesser walked to a nearby gas station, where they persuaded two young men to help them pull the car out in exchange for a marijuana cigarette. The two men asked their father for help, and after considerable effort, they freed the vehicle from the muck. Krause and Chesser returned to the trailer, put their clothes in the washing machine, took some drugs, and went to sleep. After refusing to help dispose of the body, Buchan and Martino had left the trailer and gone to Buchan's mother's house. She then drove them to see Carver's stepdaughter, Sarah Bagley, who had recently been Buchan's roommate. Buchan told Bagley what had happened, and Bagley called 911. Buchan told the 911 operator that Krause admitted shooting Carver. Krause and Chesser were arrested without incident a short time later. Krause and Chesser each challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support their convictions, disputing principally which of them fired the fatal shot. Having reviewed the record, we conclude that the evidence adduced at trial, which is summarized above, was sufficient to authorize a rational jury to find Krause and Chesser guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which they were convicted, directly or as a party to the crimes. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). In addition, questions as to the reasonableness of alternative hypotheses were for the jury to decide, Julius v. State, 286 Ga. 413, 687 S.E.2d 828 (2010), and the evidence was sufficient to enable the jury to reject every alternative hypothesis of the crimes save that of the guilt of Krause and Chesser. See OCGA § 24-4-6 (To warrant a conviction on circumstantial evidence, the proved facts shall not only be consistent with the hypothesis of guilt, but shall exclude every other reasonable hypothesis save that of the guilt of the accused.).