Court Opinion

ID: 9585809
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:04:07.230357+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:15.083325
License: Public Domain

Benham, Judge,
dissenting.
I must dissent because I disagree with the majority opinion in Divisions 1 and 2, and would reverse the conviction on both grounds.
1. In Division 1, the majority holds that in spite of the State’s noncompliance with Uniform Superior Court Rule 31.1 (253 Ga. 854 (1985)) in notifying appellant of its intent to present similar transaction evidence, similar transaction evidence was admissible because appellant should have known that the indictments in Madison County were the ones the State intended to introduce in the Ogle*542thorpe County trial, and because appellant did not show any harm to his defense as a result of the State’s failure to comply with the rule. The rule requires that the notice be in writing, served upon defendant’s counsel, and state the “transaction, date, county, and the name(s) of the victim(s) for each similar transaction or occurrence sought to be introduced. Copies of accusations or indictments, if any, and guilty pleas or verdicts, if any, shall be attached to the notice.” Id., Section (B). The State’s notice did not contain the transaction, county, names, or victims for each transaction, or copies of accusations or indictments. I fail to see how the majority can consider such a notice to constitute substantial compliance with the rule, as required in Sweatman v. State, 181 Ga. App. 474 (1) (352 SE2d 796) (1987). A defendant should not be required to piece together on his own the various components of information that the rule entitles him to receive as a whole from the State. To comply with the rule, the prosecution must reveal to appellant all the information that it has which is specified in the rule. Patten v. State, 184 Ga. App. 152 (3) (361 SE2d 203) (1987); Eidson v. State, 182 Ga. App. 321 (2) (355 SE2d 691) (1987). That rule should hold true regardless of whether a defendant previously possessed some of the information. Suppose appellant had committed other crimes in other counties on some of the dates that were listed in the Rule 31.3 notice. The mere listing of the dates with no recitation of the counties or persons involved or other required information would deny a defendant information to which he was entitled and would keep him from adequately preparing his defense against the introduction of such evidence. Had the State complied more fully with the rule, I might have been persuaded by the majority’s decision that “the defendant had the requisite notice in spite of the State’s failure.” However, I cannot condone characterizing an undisputed, unexplained and unjustified wholesale abandonment of compliance by the State as a mere “technical violation of the rule.” It is my opinion that the State should have been made to suffer the consequences of its noncompliance, and that the prosecution witnesses in question should not have been allowed to testify about the similar transactions. That testimony was clearly harmful to appellant, as it linked him to a number of burglaries that had been committed by others, and without that testimony the jury might not have reached a guilty verdict. The Uniform Rules were intended to provide just that — uniformity of the pretrial and trial process, so that the parties know, at a minimum, what information to expect, when they can expect to receive it, and when they are required to file notices or motions. If these rules are not enforced, the uniformity may remain in theory, but in practice the litigation process will devolve to the point where defendants will be subject to the vagaries of well-meaning but overzealous and/or overworked prosecutors, who may not, for *543whatever reason, comply in full with the “technicalities” of our legal system. I fear that if this happens, true justice will not be served and, ultimately, everyone will suffer as a result.
2. I also disagree that the evidence was sufficient to support appellant’s burglary conviction. While I do not doubt that appellant was engaged in criminal conduct, i.e., theft by receiving stolen property (OCGA § 16-8-7), the State failed to prove that he encouraged the burglar, Potts, to commit any burglary, much less the one of which he was convicted. Potts, testifying for the State, said that he took the weapons to appellant’s house because he had taken guns there before and appellant had bought them, and appellant had also told him and others that if they “ever had any more guns ... he would buy them, so . . . every gun we’d get, we’d take to him.” There was no testimony that appellant had told Potts or anyone else to steal guns so they could bring them to appellant to sell. It was Potts’ idea to steal items, not appellant’s. Potts said that while riding down the road, he saw the victim’s house and decided to burglarize it; that he did not know who lived there, did not know what was inside, and was not looking for anything in particular; that he had never talked to appellant or anyone else about breaking into that house; that appellant did not know Potts was bringing the guns to his house, nor did he know that Potts was going to break into a house and steal anything.
Another member of the ring testified that appellant never told them where to go to get items, but had told them what he would buy, what he needed, and what he could and could not sell, so the burglars tried to get items that appellant would be willing to buy. They took their items to appellant because he said he would buy what they could bring him. He further testified that appellant never told them to break into a house and steal a certain item, and he never conversed with them before they committed the burglaries. Appellant testified that he got the guns in question from his neighbor, in an attempt to assist the sheriff in locating the stolen property.
It is clear that appellant was in the business of selling marketable goods, stolen or otherwise. But the evidence does not support a burglary conviction. The fact that appellant may have known or suspected that the items were stolen does not make him guilty of burglary as a principal. Appellant’s situation is not like that of the appellant in Grant v. State, 47 Ga. App. 234 (1) (170 SE 394) (1933), relied upon by the majority. In Grant, the actual perpetrators testified that the appellant “promised them that if they would steal the peanuts from Kelly, he would buy them at a reasonable price, and that he assisted them in unloading the peanuts after they had stolen them; that before they stole the peanuts they had an agreement with him that he would buy them, and that he discussed the matter with them; [and] that in the discussion he told them to get Kelly’s pea*544nuts.” Id. at 234. There was no evidence presented at trial to show that appellant had such a specificity of agreement or involvement. No proof was offered to show that appellant had asked or suggested that Potts commit any burglary. The majority opinion misstates the record when it asserts that appellant “clearly counseled and encouraged others to commit burglary to obtain readily marketable goods,” and that appellant stated to Potts “what stolen items he would buy . . . because he could readily sell these items.” In fact, the evidence was that appellant had never told Potts or others to steal anything; that Potts sought appellant out after he had broken into the victim’s house and stolen the guns; that Potts himself did not decide to commit the burglary until he saw the victim’s house; and that he was not looking for anything in particular. Even if appellant had known that Potts intended to steal guns from somewhere, he did not know who the intended burglary victim was, when the burglary was to be committed, and did not in any way participate in or encourage the burglars to commit the act. See Kilgore v. State, 251 Ga. 291 (1a) (305 SE2d 82) (1983). The majority’s assertion that my reliance on Kilgore is misplaced is unfounded. There is no distinction between the situation in Kilgore and the one before us, and the majority does not attempt to draw one. Moreover, the majority’s statement “[t]hat appellant did not specifically select the target of the crime is irrelevant” totally misses the point of the cases upon which it relies. It is the total lack of specificity in this case that makes the difference between evidence of guilt of the crime and the lack of such evidence. Appellant’s statement about what he could sell was merely an offer to purchase items that the burglar/witnesses might have obtained at some point from some unnamed source. For all appellant knew, Potts could have been planning to obtain items by shopping at a few yard sales or trading with others rather than stealing, since the offer was that if they “ever had any more guns ... he would buy them.” Not only was there no direction to steal from someone in particular, there was no mandate, suggestion, or encouragement that items be stolen at all.
Although there was proof that a burglary had been committed and that appellant had possession of the stolen items, there was no proof that appellant had intentionally advised, encouraged, hired, counseled, or procured any of the actual burglars to commit the crime (OCGA § 16-2-20 (4)), and the mere proof of appellant’s recent, unexplained possession of stolen goods did not establish the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. See Bankston v. State, 251 Ga. App. 730 (309 SE2d 369) (1983). While I agree with the majority that appellant “purchased the guns knowing they were stolen and after inquiring about the area from which the guns were stolen,” that only proves appellant’s guilt of theft by receiving stolen property, not burglary. *545The majority relies erroneously on Jones v. State, 242 Ga. 893 (1) (252 SE2d 394) (1979), which was decided prior to Kilgore, supra. In Jones, the appellant, convicted of murder, had been with the other perpetrators while they planned an armed robbery, acted as a lookout while the others committed the crime, watched while one victim was shot and killed, fled the murder scene with the other murderers, and did not attempt to inform the police about her knowledge of the crimes until she was arrested two weeks later. There was clearly evidence of Jones’ participation prior to, during, and after the murder. Not so here. There was nothing to prove that appellant knew the guns were going to be stolen, and, even if he did, “approval of the act, not amounting to encouragement, will not suffice [to prove that one is a party to a crime]. [Cit.]” Moore v. State, 255 Ga. 519 (1) (340 SE2d 888) (1986). Compare Jester v. State, 151 Ga. App. 277 (259 SE2d 680) (1979), in which “ ‘[a]n alleged co-conspirator, a witness for the State, testified in great detail as to the defendant’s actions in carrying out the burglary.’ ” In this case, the State, had no such testimony.
I wholeheartedly believe that if a person is guilty of the crime for which he is charged, he should be punished. However, this court, in its zeal to accomplish that goal, should not allow omissions and mistakes of prosecutors and trial courts to go uncorrected, thereby perverting the law and reaching an unintended result. While such actions may be emotionally satisfying for the public and the judiciary on a case-by-case basis, the cause of justice and the integrity of our judicial system is not, in the long run, well served. Like Robinson v. State, 256 Ga. 564 (350 SE2d 464) (1986), reversing Robinson v. State, 180 Ga. App. 43 (348 SE2d 662) (1986), this case presents a situation in which the accused is clearly guilty of wrongdoing and should be brought to justice, but is prosecuted for a different crime. We should recognize these cases for what they are and correct errors of law when we have the opportunity to do so, lest another tribunal be forced to do it for us. See, e.g., Gordon v. State, 257 Ga. 335 (359 SE2d 634) (1987), reversing in part Gordon v. State, 181 Ga. App. 391 (352 SE2d 582) (1986). “In view of the fact that the circumstantial evidence of [appellant’s] guilt fails to preclude every other reasonable hypothesis, including the explanation put forth by defendant in his testimony, and despite the fact that circumstances create suspicion of [appellant’s] guilt ... , [it is my opinion that] the verdict and judgment against [appellant should] be reversed for the foregoing reasons.” Parker v. State, 155 Ga. App. 617 (2) (271 SE2d 871) (1980). Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
I am authorized to state that Judge Beasley joins in Division 2 of this dissent.
*546Decided December 5, 1988.
Crecelius & Crecelius, B. W. Crecelius, Sr., for appellant.
Lindsay A. Tise, Jr., District Attorney, John H. Bailey, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.