Court Opinion

ID: 9619068
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:21:41.509333+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:36.290880
License: Public Domain

Barnes, Judge,
dissenting.
Although I concur in Divisions 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 of Judge Eldridge’s excellent opinion, I must respectfully dissent from Divisions 1 and 6 because I believe that errors in the trial court’s charge require us to reverse the conviction.
For a complete understanding of the issues in this case, the facts must be stated in greater detail than they are set out in the majority opinion. This case arose from an incident during a soccer game in which the defendant threw one punch after being called a motherf — r. Although initially sentenced to twenty years confinement with ten years to serve and ten years on probation, the trial court later reduced the sentence to seven years with two years to be served in confinement and the balance on probation. In the same order, the trial court gave Christensen credit for time served, allowed him to serve the balance of the two years under supervised probation, and ordered his immediate release from confinement. One of the terms of Christensen’s probation required him to have treated the tuberculosis he contracted.
The charge against Christensen arose from an incident at a pickup soccer game in a gymnasium. Based on the testimony, several skilled players were involved in a highly competitive game with extensive physical contact. Christensen and the victim became particularly physical, with extensive pushing and shoving and taunting between them. Finally, a direct confrontation ensued, and Christensen struck the victim in the face one time with his fist. According to *173one witness, Christensen struck the victim after the victim called him a motherf — r. After the victim fell to the floor, Christensen stood over him yelling for him to get up. Christensen testified that he hit the victim because he believed that the victim was about to hit him.
When those assisting the victim were unable to stop the bleeding, the victim was taken to the hospital where it was discovered that he had suffered an injury to the bone under his eye. The victim required stitches to his eyelid and the next day had double vision. The victim testified that he had double vision after his initial surgery and that the condition lasted for five or six months.
At trial, the evidence conflicted on the degree to which the injuries were permanent. The victim’s treating physician testified that the victim had a cut that ran through his eyelid, some swelling around the eye, and complained about intermittent double vision and pain when he looked up. Further examination showed that the victim had a fracture on the floor of his eye socket. The treating physician also testified that after treatment, the victim did not look like anything was wrong with him. After he was discharged from treatment, the victim never contacted this doctor again.
Christensen called expert witnesses who testified that the victim’s medical records did not support his claim of double vision. After his injury, the victim’s eye sight was 20/20; he has no vision restrictions on his driver’s license. In the fall after this incident, he played on a championship soccer team. Another physician, who examined the victim shortly before the trial, testified that he could not find in the treating physician’s comments that the victim claimed he had double vision while looking to his left. According to this physician, the victim’s medical records showed that the victim had complained of double vision with extreme upward and downward gaze shortly after the operation but later complained of double vision only on the upward gaze.
1. Christensen contends that the trial court erred by refusing to charge the jury on simple battery as a lesser included offense and refusing to charge on opprobrious words as a defense to simple battery. Although the trial court agreed initially that it would give a charge on simple battery, it ultimately decided to charge only battery with physical harm as a lesser included offense. Further, the trial court refused to give a charge on opprobrious words as a defense to simple battery.
A jury charge is authorized if there is some evidence from which a legitimate process of reasoning can be carried on in respect to the charge. T.G. & Y. Stores Co. v. Waters, 175 Ga. App. 884, 886 (2) (334 SE2d 910) (1985). This is true even if the great preponderance of the evidence is to the contrary. Lyles v. State, 130 Ga. 294, 295 (8) (60 SE 578) (1908).
*174Further,
even if a lesser offense is not included in a charged offense as a general matter because the two offenses have different elements, the lesser offense may be an included offense in a particular case if the facts alleged in the indictment and the evidence presented at trial to establish the charged offense are sufficient to establish the lesser offense as well.
Messick v. State, 209 Ga. App. 459, 460 (1) (433 SE2d 595) (1993).
On appeal, the prosecution contends that a charge on simple battery was not warranted because the evidence established that Christensen was guilty of aggravated battery, and the majority has now, in effect, adopted this argument. This is an incorrect statement of the law.
The complete rule with regard to giving a defendant’s requested charge on a lesser included offense is: where the state’s evidence establishes all of the elements of an offense and there is no evidence raising the lesser offense, there is no error in failing to give a charge on the lesser offense. Where a case contains some evidence, no matter how slight, that shows that the defendant committed a lesser offense, then the court should charge the jury on that offense.
(Citation and punctuation omitted; emphasis in original.) Edwards v. State, 264 Ga. 131, 133 (442 SE2d 444) (1994). A defendant is entitled to have the jury consider every lesser included offense raised by the evidence. Dickson v. State, 167 Ga. App. 685, 686 (2) (307 SE2d 267) (1983).
In Georgia,
a lesser offense may be included in the greater offense as a matter of fact or as a matter of law. A lesser crime is included in a charged crime so that the accused may be convicted of the lesser crime when: (1) it is established by proof of the same or less than all the facts required to establish the commission of the crime charged; or (2) it differs from the crime charged only in the respect that a less serious injury or risk of injury or a lesser kind of culpability suffices to establish its commission. OCGA § 16-1-6.
(Citation and punctuation omitted; emphasis in original.) Messick v. State, supra, 209 Ga. App. at 460 (1).
Applying these tests, I find that simple battery is a lesser included offense of aggravated battery under either test. Therefore, *175the only issue is whether simple battery was raised by the evidence.
Under our law, “A person commits the offense of simple battery when he or she either: (1) Intentionally makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with the person of another; or (2) Intentionally causes physical harm to another.” (Emphasis supplied.) OCGA § 16-5-23 (a).
In a similar manner, under our law, “A person commits the offense of battery when he or she intentionally causes substantial physical harm or visible bodily harm to another.” (Emphasis supplied.) OCGA § 16-5-23.1. Similarly,
A person commits the offense of aggravated battery when he or she maliciously causes bodily harm to another by depriving him or her of a member of his or her body, by rendering a member of his or her body useless, or by seriously disfiguring his or her body or a member thereof.
(Emphasis supplied.) OCGA § 16-5-24 (a).
In this case, evidence is in the record from which the jury could decide that Christensen did not maliciously cause the injury to the victim. See McClain v. State, 232 Ga. App. 282, 283 (1) (502 SE2d 266) (1998) (“maliciously” means “intentionally and without justification or serious provocation”). Thus, based on Christensen’s testimony that he struck the victim, after the victim had used the offensive language, because he believed the victim was about to hit him, evidence exists from which the jury could conclude that Christensen’s conduct was not malicious.
Christensen’s testimony about his reason for hitting the victim also necessitates a charge on the lesser included offense of simple battery (OCGA § 16-5-23) even though the trial court gave a charge on battery (OCGA § 16-5-23.1). For Christensen to be convicted of either of these offenses it is not sufficient that physical harm, substantial or visible bodily harm, or bodily harm result. Christensen must have intentionally or maliciously caused the resulting harm. Therefore, the issue for the jury was not just whether the victim’s injury met the requisite degree of harm to constitute simple battery, battery, or aggravated battery, but whether Christensen acted with the required intent to inflict the injury. The issue for the jury also should have been whether Christensen intentionally caused the victim substantial physical injury or visible bodily harm (see OCGA § 16-5-23.1) or whether he intentionally caused him physical harm. OCGA § 16-5-23 (a). The majority overlooks this distinction.
Although the majority apparently feels comfortable allowing the trial judge to eliminate this issue, “[t]he intention with which an act is done is peculiarly for the jury. [Cit.]” (Punctuation omitted.) Eber*176hart v. State, 241 Ga. App. 164, 165 (1) (526 SE2d 361) (1999). Neither the majority nor the trial court has the authority to resolve this factual issue.
A person will not be presumed to act with criminal intention but the trier of facts may find such intention upon consideration of the words, conduct, demeanor, motive, and all other circumstances connected with the act for which the accused is prosecuted.
OCGA § 16-2-6.
Further, because of the conflicting medical testimony regarding the seriousness and permanence of the victim’s injury, a jury question also was presented on whether the victim suffered the type of injury that would warrant a conviction of aggravated battery, battery, or simple battery. Richards v. State, 222 Ga. App. 853, 854 (1) (b) (476 SE2d 598) (1996). Therefore, I believe that our law requires a charge on the lesser included offense of simple battery. Edwards v. State, supra, 264 Ga. at 133.
Although the majority would dismiss this error because the jury found Christensen guilty of the most serious offense, I do not believe we can merely assume that the jury would have reached the result it did if a proper charge was given. This is particularly true since a charge on simple battery as a lesser included offense necessarily implicated a charge on the defense of opprobrious words.
A person charged with the offense of simple assault or simple battery may introduce in evidence any opprobrious or abusive language used by the person against whom force was threatened or used; and the trier of facts may, in its discretion, find that the words used were justification for simple assault or simple battery.
OCGA § 16-5-25. Whether the words allegedly used by the victim justified Christensen’s conduct is a jury question. Collum v. State, 65 Ga. App. 740, 742 (16 SE2d 483) (1941). Therefore, the trial court also erred by refusing to give this charge, and a new trial is required. It is mere speculation for us to conclude that the jury would have convicted Christensen of aggravated battery if a charge on this defense had been given.
2. Christensen also alleges that the trial court erred by instructing the jury as follows:
Now ladies and gentlemen, it is true that an indictment by a grand jury is not evidence of guilt nor is the plea of not guilty by the defendant evidence of innocence. What an *177indictment is, however, is a legal document that is used in the United States of America and in most jurisdictions and in other states in this country to say that there is probable cause for an individual to be tried for the offense for which the grand jury indicted this individual. In the United States of America, we do not simply jerk someone off the street and say you are accused of a crime and then come into some court somewhere and try them. The case goes before a grand jury and a grand jury hears testimony and they decide if there is enough evidence to accuse the defendant of aggravated battery. While it is not evidence of his guilt nor is it evidence of his innocence by his plea of not guilty. It is an official document and it has a place in the legal system. As I am required to do by the law, I shall at this time read you the indictment in this case.
The trial court then read the indictment to the jury. Later, the court made the following comments:
Now ladies and gentlemen, every Tuesday the grand jury meets and these indictments have to be returned in open court. That means one of us superior court judges, usually it’s around lunch time, comes in and has the deputy open the courtroom, the bailiff from the grand jury turns these indictments over to the court. The court then turns them over to the clerk or the deputy clerk and the deputy clerk takes them to the superior court clerk’s office on the second floor and they are filed and a number placed on them. This true bill was returned and signed by the foreperson, James N. King, on or about January 18, 1999, and it was filed and the [sic] stamped signature of M. Linda Pearce, Clerk of the Superior Court. It was in the December term of 1998, a term is two months, December and January. As I say, it is not evidence or proof of what it says nor is the plea of not guilty. But it is a legal document by which this case is brought before you for your consideration and determination.
Christensen made a timely objection to this charge asserting that the charge gave undue weight to the indictment. I agree.
This charge is not included in the Suggested Pattern Jury Instructions prepared by the Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia. It is not apparent what the trial court intended by giving this elaborate charge on the indictment. Nor is it apparent what was intended by informing the jury that the indictment was a legal, official document. It is apparent, however, that this charge was wrong.
*178Decided July 14, 2000
Frank K. Martin, John T. Martin, for appellant.
J. Gray Conger, District Attorney, George E. Lipscomb II, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
The charge correctly instructed the jury that the indictment was not evidence and, at the same time, informed the jury that the indictment was an official, legal document. This charge was confusing and also, in effect, told the jury that they should consider that an indictment was rendered in reaching their decision. Also, by suggesting that some weight should be given to the indictment, the charge conflicted with the pattern jury instruction that an indictment “should not [be] considered] ... as evidence or implication of guilt.” Suggested Pattern Jury Instructions, Vol. II: Crim. Cases, 2nd ed., Part 2 (C). Under the circumstances, the instruction was unnecessary, confusing, and wrong. As charging errors are presumed harmful unless the record shows the error was harmless, and in my view the record does not support such a conclusion, I believe that Christensen’s conviction should be reversed. Foskey v. Foskey, 257 Ga. 736, 737 (2) (363 SE2d 547) (1988); Barton v. State, 79 Ga. App. 380, 387-388 (2) (53 SE2d 707) (1949).
Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent from Divisions 1 and 6 of the majority opinion and the judgment. I am authorized to state that Judge Mikell joins in this dissent.