Court Opinion

ID: 9609860
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:32:37.2872+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:52.832451
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
In Merino v. State, 230 Ga. 604 (198 SE2d 311) two persons were observed in the act of committing a crime; one individual could be identified positively but the other could not. A short time after the crime, the police were able to apprehend the identified party who was accompanied by another. Discovery in the presence of the known criminal a brief time after the crime was held to be circumstantial evidence that the second party was the *693unidentified participant in the illegal act; this evidence will support a verdict of guilty. On the other hand, the evidence in Mealor v. State, 134 Ga. App. 564 (215 SE2d 272), was held to be insufficient to support a conviction. There it was shown that two suspicious persons were observed in the area before the crime was discovered; only one of these individuals was positively identified. After discovery of the crime, the police apprehended the identified party and a companion in an automobile containing the stolen goods. This court noted that our criminal jurisprudence has not endorsed the doctrine of guilty by association and reversed the conviction of the companion.
What is the line between discovery in the presence of an identified criminal on the one hand as circumstantial evidence of guilt and on the other as unpermitted guilt by association? After studying the cases, it appears that in order for discovery in the company of an identified party to a crime to be circumstantial evidence of guilt in the perpetration of such crime, three things are required: (1) eyewitness testimony that a certain number of persons took part in the crime; (2) positive identification of at least one of those persons; and (3) apprehension of the parties immediately or soon after the perpetration of the crime. Thus in Merino there was testimony that two persons were involved, one of whom was identified and Merino was apprehended soon thereafter in the company of the identified party; this is circumstantial evidence of guilt. In Mealor there was no testimony as to how many persons were involved in the burglary but only that two boys were seen in a suspicious car in the area. Only one of these suspects could be positively identified. When Mealor was later discovered in the company of the identified party this was not circumstantial evidence of guilt; what was lacking was evidence that a certain number of persons were involved in the criminal act. Unless there is some proof as to the number of individuals involved in the perpetration, conviction merely based upon discovery in the presence of the identified criminal falls within the ban of guilt by association.
Turning to the facts of the case sub judice, there was testimony that three persons were involved in the crime, *694two active participants and one who remained in the car. Two of the parties were positively identified. The appellant was discovered in the company of the identified parties a short time after the crime was committed. This case satisfies the three elements and the evidence is therefore circumstantially persuasive that the appellant was the unidentified third party to the crime.