Henderson v. State

900 S.E.2d 596

HENDERSON

v.The STATE.

S24A0092

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: April 16, 2024

Superior Court, DeKalb County, LaTisha Dear Jackson, Judge

Forrest Geoffrey Pearce, Pearce, LLC, 3500 Parkway Lane, Suite 305, Peachtree Corners, Georgia 30092, 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, Chelsea Sharonlyn-Clyde Harvey, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Deborah D. Wellborn, A.D.A., Sherry Boston, District Attorney, Tabitha Vanessa Pazmino, A.D.A., Dekalb County District Attorney’s Office, 556 North McDonough Street, Decatur, Georgia 30030, for Appellee.

Ellington, Justice.

A DeKalb County jury found Gavin Henderson ("Henderson") guilty of malice murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony in connection with the fatal stabbing of his sister, Kiara Henderson.¹ Henderson contends the trial court erred in admitting prior-acts evidence, failing to charge the jury on the law of voluntary manslaughter, and committing cumulative errors that require reversal. Because Henderson’s claims of error are without merit, we affirm the trial court’s order denying Henderson’s motion for a new trial.

The evidence adduced at trial shows the following. In June 2018, 27-year-old Henderson lived in the Lacota Apartments in DeKalb County with his mother, Trayshelle Henderson, and his three siblings, 21-year-old Ceaira Henderson, 15-year-old Kiara, and 11-year-old Z. G. On June 18, Trayshelle and Ceaira left for work, leaving Kiara and Z. G. at home with Henderson. That afternoon, Henderson went to use the only bathroom in the apartment, but Kiara was in it. When Kiara did not leave the bathroom immediately, the siblings argued. Z. G., who was in a nearby bedroom, heard the argument.

As Henderson tried to force the bathroom door open, he wedged a clipboard (to which his cell phone was attached) between the door and the door frame. Kiara pushed the door closed, which knocked Henderson’s cell phone to the floor, damaging it. When Kiara left the bathroom, the argument with Henderson escalated. Henderson told the police that, at some point during the argument, he went to his bedroom to retrieve a knife. Z. G. heard the argument and heard Kiara threaten to call their mother; Kiara called her sister, Ceaira, instead and told her that Henderson had hit her. Z. G. then heard Kiara scream, so she left her room to see what was happening. Z. G. followed the sound of screaming to the apartment’s front door.

When Z. G. peered outside to the apartment’s breezeway, she saw Henderson striking Kiara in the abdomen with a "black metal thing." Z. G. yelled for her brother to stop, then she called the police and her mother. Neighbors also called the police. The neighbors reported hearing screaming in the breezeway and Kiara knocking on their doors for help. When officers responded to the apartment complex, they found Kiara lying on the breezeway floor. Her body was covered in stab wounds, and she was surrounded by large pools of blood.

Officers also received a 911 call from the manager of a convenience store located about a half mile from the apartment complex. The store manager said that Henderson, who had walked into his store covered in blood and holding a bloody knife, told the manager to call the police because he had just "killed someone." After the manager called the police, Henderson put the knife on the store’s front counter and began wandering around inside the store. When Henderson heard the sirens of the approaching police cars, he walked out of the store with his hands raised, surrendering.

As he was taken into custody, Henderson told the police to "just take him straight to county" and that if anyone in jail tried to "mess[ ] with him there, he would kill them, too." Officers retrieved the bloody knife – an all-black Bowie hunting knife with a 10-inch-long blade – from the store. Officers took Henderson to the precinct, where he later waived his Miranda rights and agreed to be interviewed. When the interviewing detective informed Henderson that his sister did not survive, he responded: "Thank God." Henderson went on to tell the detective that he had "blacked out" and was "in a trance" during the stabbing; however, he recounted in detail events leading up to and following the stabbing. He said that Kiara threw a glass bottle at him during their argument and that when Z. G. called his name, he came out of his trance. Photographs of the scene admitted at trial showed an unbroken bottle on the floor.

The medical examiner documented 47 major stab wounds covering Kiara's entire body, including two to her face and several on her back. The medical examiner testified that the wound pattern indicated that Kiara was stabbed with rapid, repetitive motions. The shape of some of the wounds also indicated that the blade had been twisted while inside Kiara’s body, either from her movements or her assailant’s. The medical examiner also observed extensive defensive wounds to Kiara’s hands and legs. The cause of death was determined to be multiple stab wounds to the face, torso, and extremities. The manner of death was homicide.

The State also presented evidence through the testimony of Ceaira and her mother that Henderson had violently attacked Ceaira a few months prior to the attack against Kiara. Ceaira testified that, after she had apparently offended Henderson by ignoring him, he argued with her, punched her, threw her to the floor, and then left the room briefly. When he returned, he was holding a black hunting knife. Ceaira went to her bedroom and tried to call her mother, but Henderson followed her, took her phone, and put the knife to her face. Henderson then told Ceaira to "call the police, he was ready to go." When Ceaira stalled crying, Henderson left the apartment.

Trayshelle returned to the apartment when Ceaira called her and told her that Henderson had attacked her. When Trayshelle learned what had happened, she called Henderson back to the apartment and told him that Ceaira could press charges against him. Henderson, who was holding the knife he had used to threaten Ceaira, started "raging." Trayshelle took the knife from him and told him he could not be in the house with a weapon. She hid his knife, as well as the kitchen knives, in her bedroom closet.

1. Henderson contends that the trial court erred by admitting evidence of the previous "unrelated altercation" between Henderson and his sister Ceaira pursuant to OCGA § 24-4-404 (b) ("Rule 404 (b)"). Because evidence that Henderson had assaulted Ceaira with a knife following a petty argument two months prior to the charged offense was admissible for purposes of proving Henderson’s intent, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting it.²

[1–3] "We review the trial court's decision to admit evidence pursuant to Rule 404 (b) for a clear abuse of discretion." Hood v. State, 309 Ga. 493, 499 (2), 847 S.E.2d 172 (2020). "Rule 404 (b) is a rule of inclusion, but it does prohibit the introduction of other acts evidence when it is offered for the sole purpose of showing a defendant’s bad character or propensity to commit a crime." Booth v. State, 301 Ga. 678, 682 (3), 804 S.E.2d 104 (2017). Therefore, "[i]t is well established that other acts evidence is not admissible ‘to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith,’ " but "such evidence is admissible for other purposes, including ‘proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.’ " Hood, 309 Ga. at 499 (2), 847 S.E.2d 172 (quoting Rule 404 (b)).

A party offering evidence pursuant to Rule 404 (b) must demonstrate three things: (1) that the evidence is relevant to an issue in the case other than the defendant’s character; (2) that the evidence’s probative value is not substantially outweighed by its un-due prejudice; and (3) that sufficient proof exists for a jury to find by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant committed the other act.

Id.

[4, 5] The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the evidence for the purpose of proving intent. "Because [Henderson] entered a plea of not guilty, [he] made ‘intent a material issue, and the State may prove intent by qualifying Rule 404 (b) evidence absent affirmative steps by the defendant to remove intent as an issue." Hood, 309 Ga. at 499-500 (2), 847 S.E.2d 172. "The relevance of other acts evidence offered to show intent is established when the prior act was committed with the same state of mind as the charged crime." (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Id. at 500 (2), 847 S.E.2d 172. "Where the intent required for the charged offenses and other acts is the same, and intent is at issue, the first prong of the Rule 404 (b) test is satisfied." Booth, 301 Ga. at 683 (3), 804 S.E.2d 104.

[6] In this case, in addition to malice murder, Henderson was charged in the indictment with committing an aggravated assault against Kiara by assaulting her and stabbing her with a knife, "an object which when used offensively against a person did result in serious bodily injury." See OCGA § 16-5-21 (a) (2) ("A person commits the offense of aggravated assault when he … assaults … [w]ith a deadly weapon or with any object … which, when used offensively against a person, is likely to or actually does result in serious bodily injury[.]").³ Henderson’s prior incident with Ceaira also involved acts which would constitute an aggravated assault with a knife, an "object … which, when used offensively against a person, is likely to or actually does result in serious bodily injury." Id. The acts as alleged in the aggravated assault count of the indictment and the acts as testified to by Ceaira concerning the prior assault...