Baker v. State

902 S.E.2d 645

BAKER

v.The STATE.

S24A0478

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: May 29, 2024

Superior Court, Spalding County, W. Fletcher Sams, Judge

Frances C. Kuo, Georgia Public Defender Council, 270 Washington Street, Suite 5198, Atlanta, Georgia 30334, for Appellant.

Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Clint Christopher Malcolm, Assistant Attorney General, Meghan Hobbs Hill, Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Eric Christopher Peters, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Elizabeth A. Baker, Deputy Chief A.D.A., Griffin Judicial Circuit, One Center Drive, Fayetteville, Georgia 30214, Marie Greene Broder, District Attorney, Griffin Circuit District Attorney’s Office, 132 East Solomon Street, Griffin, Georgia 30223, for Appellee.

Peterson, Presiding Justice.

Kenneth Lee Baker appeals his convictions for malice murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime for the fatal shootings of his wife, Lynnale Baker, and stepdaughter, Shaelinda Sanders.¹ He argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction, that the trial court plainly erred by failing to give a jury charge on impeachment for bias, and that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting into evidence certain autopsy photos and a notebook found in his truck. We conclude that the evidence was sufficient both as a matter of constitutional due process and Georgia statutory law, that the trial court did not plainly err in failing to give an instruction on impeachment for bias, and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the photos and notebook. We affirm.

[1] 1. Baker argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions, both as a matter of federal due process and Georgia statutory law. We disagree.

[2, 3] When evaluating the legal sufficiency of evidence, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdicts and inquire whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). "Under this review, we must put aside any questions about conflicting evidence, the credibility of witnesses, or the weight of the evidence, leaving the resolution of such things to the discretion of the trier of fact." Mims v. State, 304 Ga. 851, 853 (1) (a), 823 S.E.2d 325 (2019) (citation and punctuation omitted).

Applying this standard, the evidence presented at trial showed the following. In the spring of 2010, Baker and Lynnale were in the process of getting divorced. They were living in Griffin in Spalding County with Shaelinda, who was a high school senior, and their middle-school-aged son, K.B. A separation agreement provided that Lynnale was to be awarded the house in the divorce.

K.B. testified that on May 16, 2010, he and his mother had spent the night at his aunt’s home in College Park. At 5:39 a.m. on May 17, 2010, Lynnale sent Baker’s cell phone a sexually suggestive text message, apparently intended for someone else. Lynnale dropped K.B. off at school and proceeded to the Griffin residence to see Shaelinda, according to K.B. Lynnale’s phone called Baker’s phone around 9:00 a.m., and records show the call lasted two minutes and twenty-one seconds.

Phone records showed that at 11:16 a.m., Baker’s cell phone, pinging off a cell tower in Tallapoosa, attempted a call to the phone of Baker’s father, Randolph Young. Records showed that, twelve minutes later, Young’s phone received a call of six minutes and thirty-one seconds in duration from a pay phone located in Tallapoosa, which is about two hours from Griffin. According to Young’s testimony, Baker called around 11:00 a.m. or 11:15 a.m. and said he "had shot Lynnale and the girl" and was "going to kill himself." Young testified that Baker asked Young to pick K.B. up from school. Young testified that he had never been to Baker’s house and they had little in common.

In response to a call from Young, law enforcement proceeded to the Griffin residence, which was locked and showed no sign of forced entry. There they found both Lynnale and Shaelinda inside a locked bedroom, shot to death. Baker was suspected of the crimes, and law enforcement placed lookouts on him and his vehicle.

In late July 2010, Andre Adams saw Baker on the America’s Most Wanted television show and recalled seeing Baker’s "black truck with a Georgia tag on it" at a park in Shreveport, Louisiana on July 27, 2010. Adams returned to the park on August 3, 2010, saw Baker and his truck, and called 911. Adams testified that he overheard Baker mumbling, "I messed my life up; I shouldn’t have … done that." Baker was arrested at the park that day in a Mazda pickup truck. He volunteered to an arresting officer that there was not a gun in his truck. He asked an officer to check on his son and expressed concerns over whether K.B. "was strong enough to handle what he knew."

Pursuant to a consent-to-search form signed by Baker, law enforcement searched Baker’s truck and found divorce papers and a notebook. The first page in the notebook began with the statement, "My name is Kenneth Lee Baker," and included Baker’s address and names and some contact information for various people, including Baker’s father and children. The notebook included apologies and requests for forgiveness and statements indicating the writer no longer wished to live, but did not clearly reference Lynnale, Shaelinda, or any shootings or murders. Referencing K.B., the writer said, "My father has temp custody of him for now." The notebook included a list of assets, including a "1995 Mazda Pickup." One page included the words, "Kenneth Baker last will" and another the words, "I don’t want to live anymore I am sorry for all that I have done. Kenny Baker 8-3-10 No more pain."

Testifying in his own defense at trial, Baker said that he spent the night before the shootings at the Griffin residence with Shaelinda, but was not present for the shootings. He testified that he could not remember where he went after he left the house that morning. Baker said he spoke to Lynnale on the telephone on the morning of the shootings and he understood that she was going to Griffin. Baker also said he spoke to K.B. around 8:00 a.m. or 8:30 a.m. that morning and K.B. had not been dropped off at school. Baker said he was not sure whether he called Young the morning of the shootings, testifying that his phone had been broken. Baker claimed that he did not have any relationship with Young, they did not get along at all, and that previous attempts for Baker to live with Young had failed, including after Baker had been released from a previous incarceration for his assault on the mother of one of his children. Baker testified that Young hated Baker "so much that he got up [t]here and lied" to the jury about Baker calling that day.

Applying the Jackson v. Virginia, constitutional sufficiency standard cited above, we conclude that the evidence admitted at trial was sufficient to authorize the jury’s verdict on the malice murder counts. Baker argues essentially that the State did not prove that he was the person who shot his wife and stepdaughter. But among other evidence, the State presented evidence that Baker confessed to Young that he had shot Lynnale and Shaelinda and asked Young to pick up K.B. from school, prompting Young to call the police. The scene encountered by law enforcement, who conducted a welfare check at Baker’s home, showed that Lynnale and Shaelinda had in fact been shot.

The record also contains various pieces of evidence of Baker’s consciousness of guilt, including his departure from the Griffin area in the wake of the violent deaths of his wife and stepdaughter, remarks by Baker in a notebook found in his truck in which he offered general apologies and said that he did "not want to live anymore[,]" and the testimony by the tipster in Shreveport regarding Baker’s statements that he had "messed [his] life up" and "shouldn’t have … done that." See Renner v. State, 260 Ga. 515, 517 (3) (a), 397 S.E.2d 683 (1990) (evidence authorized a finding by the jury that defendant’s departure from the state following death of victim "was occasioned by a consciousness of guilt"); see also Bostic v. State, 294 Ga. 845, 848 (2), 757 S.E.2d 59 (2014) (testimony of fellow inmate of defendant regarding statements by defendant that showed consciousness of guilt was admissible as admissions of a party opponent).

Baker claims that he had an alibi — that he had left his home and was driving "toward I-20" on his way to Louisiana on the morning of the shootings — and relies almost exclusively on his own testimony in support. But Baker professed a lack of recollection as to some of his actions on the morning of the shooting; that testimony may itself support an inference of guilt if it were disbelieved by the jury, given the other evidence of Baker’s guilt. See Mims v. State, 310 Ga. 853, 855, 854 S.E.2d 742 (2021) (defendant’s testimony "may itself be considered substantive evidence of guilt when disbelieved by the jury, as long as some corroborative evidence exists for the charged offense"). To the extent Baker relies on cell phone records showing that he was driving on I-20 near Tallapoosa before his signal was lost, the relevant evidence showed that police began tracking Baker’s location after the shootings in hopes of locating him. Baker points to no evidence excluding the possibility that he was at the Griffin home at the time of the shootings.

[4] Baker also appears to argue that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of Georgia statutory law. He cites OCGA § 24-8-823, arguing that his alleged confession to Young was not sufficiently corroborated. Under OCGA § 24-8-823 and its predecessor statute, OCGA § 24-3-53: "All admissions shall be scanned with care, and confessions of guilt shall be received with great...