Court Opinion

ID: 9960407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-04-16 13:03:31.472014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:19:26.528916
License: Public Domain

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court
Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the
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official text of the opinion.

In the Supreme Court of Georgia

                                                    Decided: April 16, 2024

                         S24A0068. MILTON v. THE STATE.

         MCMILLIAN, Justice.

         Jarvis Lamont Milton was convicted of murder and other

crimes in connection with the shooting death of Frederick Cade.1

         1 Frederick Cade was killed on the night of August 13-14, 2017. Milton

and Richard Stroud, Jr., were indicted by a Wilkes County grand jury on
February 4, 2019, individually and as parties to a crime and co-conspirators,
on charges of violating the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act (Count
1), malice murder (Count 2), felony murder (Count 3), possession of a firearm
in the commission of a crime (Count 4), and aggravated assault (Count 5).
After Stroud’s case was severed, Milton was tried before a jury in May 2019
and found guilty on all counts. On May 10, 2019, the trial court sentenced
Milton to life in prison, without the possibility of parole on Count 2 and to five
years in prison on Count 4, to run consecutively to Count 2. Counts 1 and 5
were merged into Count 2 for sentencing purposes, and Count 3 was vacated
by operation of law. Although it appears that the Gang Act charge was
improperly merged into the murder conviction, see Lupoe v. State, 300 Ga. 233,
239 (1) (794 SE2d 67) (2016) (“[T]he gang activity counts did not merge as that
crime and malice murder each require proof of an element that the other does
not.”), we decline to exercise our discretion to correct that merger error, which
has not been raised by the State. See Dixon v. State, 302 Ga. 691, 698 (4) (808
SE2d 696) (2017) (“[W]e have determined that, when a merger error benefits a
defendant and the State fails to raise it by cross-appeal, we henceforth will
exercise our discretion to correct the error upon our own initiative only in
Milton appeals his convictions, asserting in his sole enumeration of

error that the evidence presented at trial was not sufficient for a

rational trier of fact to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of

the crimes of which he was convicted as required by Jackson v.

Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). We affirm

for the reasons that follow.

      1. The evidence at trial showed that in August 2017, Cade was

married to Shakevia Graves, who had an eight-year-old son, D.G.,

with Milton’s co-indictee, Richard Stroud, Jr. At that time, Milton

had been dating Shakevia’s twin sister, Shanevia (“NeNe”) Graves

for six to seven years.2 Shakevia and Cade’s marriage was volatile.

exceptional circumstances.”). Stroud was tried separately in November 2019,
and his appeal is before this Court as Case No. S24A0069.
      Milton filed a motion for new trial on May 28, 2019, and a second motion
asserting the same grounds on June 26, 2019; an amended motion for new trial
was filed on August 15, 2022. The trial court denied Milton’s motion as
amended on July 20, 2023. Milton filed a notice of appeal on July 28, 2023, and
an amended notice of appeal on August 9, 2023. This appeal was docketed to
the term of this Court beginning in December 2023 and submitted for a
decision on the briefs.
      2 Because the Graves sisters’ names are so similar and to avoid

confusion, we will refer to Shakevia by her full name and Shanevia by her
nickname, “NeNe,” which is how the witnesses and counsel primarily referred
to her at trial.
                                      2
The two would often argue and their arguments would sometimes

turn physical. As a result, Shakevia often stayed at her

grandparents’ house, which was where NeNe was living. Shakevia

testified that there was “bad blood” between Cade and Stroud

because Cade was jealous of the time Shakevia spent with Stroud

and that the two men also argued over Stroud’s failure to contribute

to D.G.’s support.

     On Sunday, August 13, 2017, Cade and Shakevia were not

getting along and Shakevia had spent the prior week at her

grandparents’ house. That Sunday night, she and NeNe decided to

drive to a nearby business. While they were parked there, they saw

Cade driving up in his truck, and the sisters sped off, with Shakevia

driving. Cade followed them, and both vehicles drove through the

neighborhood until Shakevia pulled into her grandparents’ house.

Cade pulled behind the sisters’ car but did not get out and instead

drove away.

     In the interim, NeNe texted Milton to bring them cigarettes,

and a short time later Stroud drove Milton to the grandparents’

                                 3
house in Stroud’s car. NeNe got into the backseat of Stroud’s car,

while Shakevia approached the car to get a cigarette. As Shakevia

leaned inside the car, Cade “came out of nowhere” and pushed

Shakevia from behind. Both Shakevia and Cade fell inside the

backseat of Stroud’s car still “tussling.” Shakevia got out of the car

and ran to the porch of the house, with Cade following her.

     As this altercation was occurring, Stroud and Milton were

telling Cade to stop. Milton told Cade that he was “f**ked up about

[himself] for putting [his] hands on [Shakevia] in front of her

grandma,” and Milton called Cade a “p***y n****r” for doing that.

Stroud argued with Cade for fighting Shakevia, his “baby mama,” in

Stroud’s car. When the sisters’ grandparents came out of the house

in response to the altercation, Stroud escorted Cade off the porch,

and Cade walked away. Shakevia testified that Stroud, Milton, and

NeNe then drove away in Stroud’s car in the direction opposite from

where Cade was walking. Shakevia stayed behind and began

repeatedly calling and texting Cade but never got a response.

     Shakevia testified that NeNe returned to the house “in a rage”

                                  4
and “cussing” less than an hour after she left. NeNe told Shakevia

that Shakevia was “stupid as hell” for calling Cade’s phone “while

they up there fighting.” When Shakevia asked what had happened,

NeNe did not answer, but only said that “you and everybody else

going to know what happened to him tomorrow.”

     Cade’s body was discovered early on the morning of August 14,

2017, lying on the pavement in an isolated area near the

grandparents’ house. Witnesses at the scene, including attending

medical personnel and police investigators, observed that Cade

appeared to have suffered at least one gunshot wound to the arm

and that he also had an injury to his torso. Emergency medical

services personnel called to the scene detected no signs of life.

Investigators also observed that Cade’s body and clothing were

muddy. And they discovered muddy shoe prints and a blood trail

beginning near a muddy area on the side of the road about 20 yards

from Cade’s body. The blood trail ended at the body, suggesting that

Cade had traveled for some distance before collapsing to the

pavement. Blood samples taken from the blood trail on the roadway

                                 5
were later identified as matching a blood sample obtained from

Cade’s body during his autopsy.

     Agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (“GBI”)

arrived at the grandparents’ house around 5:00 a.m. to inform

Shakevia that Cade was dead. Afterwards, NeNe and Shakevia were

interviewed at the Wilkes County Sheriff’s office by GBI Agents

Derrick Glasco and Austin Bradshaw. Agent Bradshaw first

questioned Shakevia at 6:20 a.m., and she told the agent that NeNe

had driven away with Stroud and Milton from the house, but she did

not know who had shot Cade. Meanwhile, Agent Glasco began

interviewing NeNe at 6:43 a.m., and as NeNe acknowledged at trial,

her stories “changed numerous . . . times.” NeNe first told Glasco

about the altercation between Cade and Shakevia, but she never

mentioned that Stroud or Milton were at her grandparents’ house or

that she was with them after the altercation. Instead, NeNe said she

smoked a cigarette after the altercation and went into the house.

     When Agent Bradshaw joined Agent Glasco and NeNe at

around 7:00 a.m., the agents began to video record the interview.

                                  6
NeNe continued to maintain that she had not left her grandparents’

house, although she eventually told the agents that Milton and

Stroud were at the house during the altercation between Cade and

Shakevia.3 But when the agents accused NeNe of lying and

suggested that she was covering for her boyfriend, Milton NeNe

said, “Jarvis [Milton] shot Pooh,” which was Cade’s nickname. She

stated that Stroud and Milton came over to the grandparents’ house

to pick up NeNe and Shakevia, and as the sisters were getting into

the car with the two men, Cade came up behind Shakevia and

pushed her in the car, leading to the altercation. NeNe also admitted

that she left in Stroud’s car with Stroud and Milton after Cade left.

NeNe said that as they drove away from the house, Stroud and

Milton decided to follow Cade, and they caught up with him walking

along the road. When they drove up, Cade began yelling, and Milton

and Stroud yelled back. Stroud then said, “F**k it, let’s go beat him

up.” Both Stroud and Milton got out of the car while NeNe stayed in

the car. When the two men got out of the car, Cade immediately hit

     3 Neither GBI agent had interviewed Stroud or Milton at that point.

                                    7
Stroud, leading to a “two-on-one” fight, with Stroud and Milton

fighting Cade. NeNe then heard a gunshot, but she never saw a gun.

She thought Milton shot Cade because she heard Stroud say,

“Damn, boy, you done f**ked up.” When the three drove away from

the scene, NeNe saw Cade running up the road, and he appeared to

be holding his arm. Stroud and Milton then took NeNe to her

grandparents’ house at her request, and she ran inside.

     When asked at trial why her stories changed during the

interview, NeNe testified that she first said she had not left her

grandparents’ house because she was scared and nervous and did

not want anyone to know that she was at the scene of the shooting

or in any way involved. She testified that after the GBI agents told

her that her story was false, she told them that Milton shot Cade

because she thought that was what they wanted to hear as they had

accused her of trying to protect her boyfriend and they were

threatening that she could be charged with a crime if she did not tell

them what had happened. NeNe said that to avoid being charged

she “was willing to tell them anything.” Agent Bradshaw testified,

                                  8
however, that he “just tried to make it clear to her how serious this

was, that a man had lost his life, and if she was in the vehicle, her

withholding information she could potentially be charged.” This

portion of NeNe’s videotaped interview was played for the jury.4

     Agent Bradshaw testified that, after he interviewed both

sisters that morning, he went back to the crime scene at 8:20 a.m. to

view the scene in the daylight, as the area had been dark earlier in

the morning. While at the scene, near an area on the side of the road

where it looked like the mud had been freshly turned up and the

blood trail and muddy shoe prints began, he discovered a gold

pendant “jammed up in the mud.” Agent Bradshaw later matched

the pendant to a profile picture from Stroud’s Facebook page, which

showed him wearing a necklace with a very similar pendant. The

profile picture was posted to Stroud’s page on August 3, 2017, ten to

     4 The video reflects that Agent Bradshaw told NeNe that he knew she

was leaving things out of her story because he had already talked to Shakevia.
He told NeNe that the agents knew that she had left the house with Milton
and Stroud. Agent Bradshaw told NeNe that she was implicating herself by
not being truthful and because a man had died, she could be charged with
murder as she was in the car and lied to police about what happened. The agent
then posited that NeNe was there when Cade was shot and saw what
happened, but she was covering for her boyfriend.
                                      9
eleven days before Cade was shot.

     Agent Bradshaw interviewed Stroud at 8:52 a.m. the same

morning. During the interview, Stroud gave the GBI permission to

search his car, where investigators located mud and blood smears

both inside and outside of the vehicle. A blood smear located on the

vehicle’s front center console was later determined to match Cade’s

blood sample. Milton was arrested later that afternoon, and Agent

Bradshaw interviewed him at 2:52 p.m. that day. The agent testified

that Milton said that after the altercation occurred at the

grandparents’ house, Stroud drove him and NeNe to Milton’s house.

Milton said they did not make any stops and denied having any

knowledge or involvement in Cade’s death.

     At Milton’s trial, NeNe again changed her story about what

happened that night. She testified that Stroud and Milton did not

go looking for Cade after they left the grandparents’ house, but,

instead, they just happened upon him walking in the road. She said

Stroud stopped the car, and Stroud and Cade were yelling at each

other. Although NeNe stated in her interview that both Milton and

                                10
Stroud fought with Cade in a “two-on-one” fight, at trial she testified

that Milton tried to be the peacemaker, that he told Stroud, “y’all

can deal with that on another time,” and that only Stroud fought

with Cade. NeNe testified that while Cade and Stroud were fighting,

Milton stood beside NeNe’s side of the car smoking a cigarette, and

that he was still standing there when she heard the gunshot. And

unlike in her interview where she said she heard Stroud say, “Damn,

boy, you done f**ked up,” at trial she testified to hearing Stroud say,

after the gunshot, “damn man, I done f**ked up.” NeNe testified that

she did not see a gun, but when Stroud started walking to the car,

she saw that he had his shirt off and was wrapping his hand in the

shirt. She could not see what was in his hand, but she said that

Stroud placed the wrapped shirt between his legs when he got back

into the car. And she testified that she never really saw Cade after

that, contrary to her statement in her interview that after the

gunshot she saw Cade running away holding his arm.

     The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Cade’s

body testified that it appeared that a single bullet entered and exited

                                  11
his right arm, then re-entered his right torso where it struck several

of his ribs, his right lung, and ultimately his heart, resulting in

massive hemorrhaging and death. The medical examiner did not,

however, rule out the possibility that the wounds to the arm and the

torso could have been made by separate gunshots.

      Additionally, the State played DVD recordings of two phone

calls Milton made at the jail shortly after his arrest. In the calls,

Milton stated that he had been charged with murder and that he

needed to get the charge reduced to manslaughter.

      2. Milton asserts that the evidence presented at trial was not

sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find him guilty beyond a

reasonable doubt under Jackson v. Virginia.5 “Under [the Jackson]

test, we view all of the evidence presented at trial in the light most

      5 Although Milton purports to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence

as to all the charges of which the jury found him guilty, he was only sentenced
on the charges of malice murder and possession of a firearm in the commission
of a felony. The other charges were either merged into his murder conviction
or vacated. Therefore, his challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence to
support those crimes are moot, and we confine our analysis to the evidence
presented in support of malice murder and the firearm possession charge. See
Anderson v. State, 299 Ga. 193, 196 (1) n.4 (787 SE2d 202) (2016) (defendant’s
claims about sufficiency of evidence were moot for crimes that were vacated or
that mergedr).
                                      12
favorable to the verdicts and consider whether any rational juror

could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of

the crimes of which he was convicted.” Kirkland v. State, __ Ga. __,

__ (8), 2024 WL 674830, at *13 (Case No. S23A0942, decided Feb.

20, 2024). See also Jackson, 443 U. S. at 319 (III) (B); Fitts v. State,

312 Ga. 134, 141 (3) (859 SE2d 79) (2021). “This limited review

leaves to the jury the resolution of conflicts in the evidence, the

weight of the evidence, the credibility of witnesses, and reasonable

inferences to be made from basic facts to ultimate facts.” Muse v.

State, 316 Ga. 639, 647 (2) (889 SE2d 885) (2023) (citation and

punctuation omitted).

     Milton was charged individually and as a party to the crime of

malice murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of

a crime. “A person commits the offense of murder when he

unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or implied,

causes the death of another human being.” OCGA § 16-5-1 (a). And

under OCGA §16-11-106 (b) (1), it is unlawful for any person to “have

on or within arm’s reach of his or her person a firearm . . . during

                                  13
the commission of, or the attempt to commit . . . [a]ny crime against

or involving the person of another.”

      Moreover, “[e]very person concerned in the commission of a

crime is a party thereto and may be charged with and convicted of

commission of the crime.” OCGA § 16-2-20 (a). To obtain a conviction

of a person as a party to the crime, the State must prove “that he

intentionally aided or abetted in the commission of the crimes or

intentionally advised, encouraged, counseled, or procured someone

else to commit the crimes.” Frazier v. State, 308 Ga. 450, 453 (2) (a)

(841 SE2d 692) (2020). “Conviction as a party to a crime requires

proof of a common criminal intent, which the jury may infer from

the defendant’s presence, companionship, and conduct with another

perpetrator before, during, and after the crimes.” Muse, 316 Ga. at

648 (2) (citation and punctuation omitted). Thus, to prove Milton

guilty of the charges of malice murder and possession of a firearm

during the commission of a felony, it was not necessary for the State

to prove that Milton personally possessed a weapon or fired a gun at

Cade as long as the State proved that Milton was a party to the

                                 14
crimes. See Scoggins v. State, 317 Ga. 832, 836-39 (1) (a)-(b) (896

SE2d 476) (2023) (even where evidence did not conclusively

establish which of the two defendants shot victim or had a weapon,

evidence of a common criminal intent, including defendant’s

presence, companionship, and conduct before and immediately after

the fatal shooting supported convictions as a party to the crimes of

malice murder and possession of a firearm).

     Upon review of the record, we conclude the evidence at trial,

when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, was

constitutionally sufficient to support Milton’s convictions for malice

murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a

felony. The State produced evidence that on the morning after Cade

was shot, NeNe told police that Milton shot Cade. Although NeNe

subsequently testified at trial that Stroud, rather than Milton, was

the shooter and that she originally identified Milton as the shooter

only because she felt pressured by police to do so, the jurors had the

opportunity to review the portion of the video recording leading up

to NeNe’s identification of Milton as the shooter, and it was up to

                                 15
them to assess her credibility and decide which version to believe.

See Lewis v. State, 314 Ga. 654, 659 (2) (878 SE2d 467) (2022) (where

witness provided conflicting testimony at trial about the events

surrounding the shooting and the identity of the shooter, it “was for

the jury to assess the credibility of the witnesses” and “to resolve

any discrepancies in the evidence presented at trial.” (citation and

punctuation omitted)).

      Moreover, even if the jury had concluded that Stroud was the

shooter, the evidence was sufficient to find Milton guilty as a party

to the crime. NeNe initially told police that Stroud and Milton went

looking for Cade together after they had both argued with him and

that Stroud and Milton fought Cade together two-on-one after

Stroud said, “let’s go beat him up.” 6 Milton and Stroud also left the

scene together in Stroud’s car after Cade was shot, and Cade’s blood

was found inside Stroud’s car. After his arrest, Milton lied to police

about what happened on the night of the shooting. Thus, the

      6Although NeNe testified at trial that they came upon Cade by chance

and only Stroud fought Cade, it was for the jury to resolve this conflict. See
Lewis, 314 Ga. at 659.
                                     16
evidence supported Milton’s presence and active participation

before, during, and after the commission of the crimes.

     We conclude that this and other evidence at trial was more

than sufficient to authorize the jury to find Milton guilty beyond a

reasonable doubt of the crimes of malice murder and possession of a

firearm during the commission of a crime, either as the shooter or

as a party to the crimes. See Scoggins, 317 Ga. at 836-39 (1) (a)-(b);

State v. Cash, 302 Ga. 587, 595-96 (807 SE2d 405) (2017) (evidence

including that the defendant assented to and lent approval to the

commission of the crime by a co-defendant and lied to police after

the crime was sufficient to support the jury's finding that the

defendant aided and abetted the crime); Williams v. State, 291 Ga.

501, 504 (1) (c) (732 SE2d 47) (2012) (concluding that the evidence

established that defendant was a party to the crime where it showed

that he was present when the crimes were committed and the jury

could infer from his conduct before and after the crimes that he

shared a common criminal intent with the actual perpetrators);

Johnson v. State, 276 Ga. 368, 371 (1) (578 SE2d 885) (2003)

                                 17
(although the evidence showed that weapon was in the physical

possession of defendant’s co-indictee, defendant is guilty of

possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony where

defendant was accomplice of the person who was in physical

possession of the pistol).

     Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.

                                18