Court Opinion

ID: 9387512
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-04-18 13:02:31.677823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:13.696100
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
opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any
prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and
official text of the opinion.

In the Supreme Court of Georgia

                                                  Decided: April 18, 2023

                       S23A0340. MARTIN v. THE STATE.

       BOGGS, Chief Justice.

       Appellant           Anthony           Jerry        Martin         challenges           his      2015

convictions for felony murder and a firearm offense in connection

with the shooting death of Marlon Underwood. Appellant’s sole

enumeration of error is that the evidence presented at trial was

legally insufficient to support his convictions as a matter of

constitutional due process and Georgia statutory law. However, as

explained below, when properly viewed in the light most favorable

to the jury’s verdicts, the evidence was sufficient to support

Appellant’s convictions. Accordingly, we affirm. 1

       Underwood was killed on October 4, 2015. On July 5, 2017, a Chatham
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County grand jury indicted Appellant and a co-defendant, Mylek Anthony
Bigham, for malice murder, three counts of felony murder, aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with intent to rob, possession of a
      1.     Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the

evidence at trial showed the following. On October 3, 2015, at

around 6:00 p.m., Appellant used his cell phone to take three

photographs of himself wearing a brightly colored shirt with a

distinctive     pattern.      Later     that     evening,     Appellant       saved

Underwood’s cell phone number in his cell phone under the name

firearm by a convicted felon, and three counts of possession of a firearm during
the commission of a crime. At a trial from March 5 to 9, 2018, the jury acquitted
Bigham of all charges. The jury also acquitted Appellant of malice murder,
possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, felony murder based on the felon-
in-possession charge, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon but found
him guilty of the remaining charges. The trial court sentenced Appellant as a
recidivist under OCGA § 17-10-7 (c) to serve life in prison without the
possibility of parole for felony murder based on aggravated assault with intent
to rob and a consecutive term of five years for possession of a firearm during
the commission of felony murder. The court also erroneously sentenced
Appellant for felony murder based on aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon, aggravated assault with intent to rob, and the other two counts of
possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Appellant filed a
timely motion for new trial, which he amended with new counsel on August 24,
2022. On September 13, 2022, the trial court held a hearing on the motion. On
October 3, 2022, the court entered an order resentencing Appellant, this time
not as a recidivist, to serve life in prison with the possibility of parole for felony
murder based on aggravated assault with intent to rob and a term of five years
consecutive for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The
court vacated the other felony murder count on which the jury found Appellant
guilty, merged the count of aggravated assault with intent to rob and the two
other counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and
otherwise denied Appellant’s motion for new trial. Appellant filed a timely
notice of appeal, and the case was docketed in this Court for the term beginning
in December 2022 and submitted for decision on the briefs.

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“Lick,” a slang term for the target of a robbery. The next day,

between 5:11 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Appellant exchanged a series of

text messages and cell phone calls with Underwood in which he

arranged to meet Underwood at a gas station and convenience store

in Savannah, ostensibly to buy marijuana. Underwood said that he

was driving a “red jeep,” and Appellant said that he was in a black

Altima.

     At 7:12 p.m., Underwood backed his red SUV into a parking

space near the entrance to the convenience store beside a white

Honda. Underwood opened the front driver-side door but remained

in the SUV with the lights on and the engine running. Appellant and

another man approached, and Underwood produced a digital scale

and several grapefruit-sized baggies of marijuana. A struggle over

the marijuana ensued in which two of the baggies fell under the

white Honda, at least one baggie was torn open and marijuana was

strewn into the parking lot, and Appellant dropped his cell phone.

Surveillance video from inside and outside the convenience store

captured part of the struggle as the three men moved from between

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the SUV and the white Honda towards the store window and then

the entrance to the store. In the video, Appellant is wearing the

same brightly colored shirt with the distinctive pattern that he had

on when he took the three photographs of himself on his cell phone

a little more than 24 hours earlier.

     At 7:13 p.m., the man with Appellant fired a .22-caliber pistol

at Underwood, striking him once in the left side of the chest and

hitting the rear driver-side door of the SUV. Appellant and the man

with him then fled the scene as Underwood stumbled through the

parking lot to the door of the convenience store, dropped his cell

phone, and collapsed. Responding officers arrived within a minute

or two of the shooting, and Underwood was taken to a nearby

hospital, where he died from the gunshot wound to his chest. No

firearms were found at the scene or otherwise.

     At trial, Appellant elected not to testify in his own defense and

called no witnesses. His defense theory was that the police did not

do a thorough investigation, that the evidence failed to show that he

was present at the shooting, and that even if the evidence showed

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that he was present, it did not show what his role in the incident

was.

       2.   Appellant’s sole enumeration of error is that the evidence

was insufficient to support his convictions as a matter of

constitutional due process and OCGA § 24-14-6. We disagree.

       The proper standard of review for sufficiency of the evidence as

a matter of constitutional due process is whether any rational trier

of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable

doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (99 SCt 2781, 61

LE2d 560) (1979). This Court views the evidence in the “light most

favorable to the verdict, with deference to the jury’s assessment of

the weight and credibility of the evidence.” Hayes v. State, 292 Ga.

506, 506 (739 SE2d 313) (2013) (citation omitted).

       Appellant’s cell phone, which was recovered at the scene of the

shooting, contained several self-taken photographs, or “selfies,” of

Appellant wearing a brightly colored shirt with a distinctive pattern

a little more than 24 hours before the shooting, and the surveillance

video showed a man wearing the same shirt and another man

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struggling with Underwood moments before the shooting, although

it did not capture the actual shooting. Data from Appellant’s and

Underwood’s cell phones showed that they were communicating in

the time leading up to the shooting, including through text messages

referring to an upcoming meeting. The day before the shooting,

Appellant saved Underwood’s cell phone number in his cell phone

under the name “Lick,” a term that law enforcement officers testified

was a slang term for the target of a robbery. And responding officers,

who arrived within a minute or two of the shooting, found a digital

scale and a large amount of marijuana at the scene. Viewed in the

light most favorable to the jury’s verdicts, this evidence was

sufficient as a matter of constitutional due process to authorize a

rational trier of fact to find Appellant guilty beyond a reasonable

doubt as a party to the crimes of felony murder and possession of a

firearm during the commission of a felony. See Jackson, 433 U.S. at

319. See also OCGA § 16-2-20 (defining parties to a crime).

     Appellant’s reliance on OCGA § 24-14-6 is unavailing. That

statute says that “[t]o warrant a conviction on circumstantial

                                  6
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.” “The

reasonableness of an alternative hypothesis raised by a defendant is

a question principally for the jury.” See Cochran v. State, 305 Ga.

827, 829 (828 SE2d 338) (2019).

     Appellant claims that the evidence against him was wholly

circumstantial and puts forward the alternative hypothesis that

Underwood was armed, the aggressor, and the one attempting a

robbery. But even assuming (without deciding) that the case against

Appellant was wholly circumstantial, the jury was authorized to

reject Appellant’s alternative hypothesis as unreasonable based on

the evidence, which showed that no firearms were found at the

scene, and that Appellant arranged the meeting and saved

Underwood’s cell phone number in his cell phone under the name

“Lick.” Accordingly, Appellant’s challenge to the sufficiency of the

evidence as a matter of constitutional due process and Georgia

statutory law fails.

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Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.

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