Kim v. State

309 Ga. 612

847 S.E.2d 546

KIM

v.The STATE.

S20A0865

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: August 24, 2020

Lisa M. Wolff, Emily J. Gilbert, for appellant.

Daniel J. Porter, District Attorney, Samuel R. d'Entremont, Assistant District Attorney; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Leslie A. Coots, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Melton, Chief Justice.

Following a bench trial, Appellant Ki Song Kim appeals his convictions for murder and other offenses in connection with the stabbing deaths of Young Chan Choi ("Mr. Choi") and Sun Hee Choi ("Mrs. Choi").¹ In his sole enumeration of error, Kim claims that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his convictions. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to sustain Kim's convictions. However, we also conclude that we must vacate Kim's sentences as to Counts 9 and 10 of his indictment in order to correct sentencing errors that harm Kim.

1. Kim contends that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions because the evidence of his guilt was entirely circumstantial and did not rule out the reasonable hypothesis consistent with his innocence that he put forth at trial. We disagree.

It is well settled that, when evaluating the sufficiency of evidence, "the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." (Emphasis omitted.) Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307, 319 (III) (B), 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). "This Court does not reweigh evidence or resolve conflicts in testimony; instead, evidence is reviewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, with deference to the [factfinder's] assessment of the weight and credibility of the evidence." (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Hayes v. State , 292 Ga. 506, 506, 739 S.E.2d 313 (2013).

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence presented at trial showed that, several years before the crimes, Kim had worked for the Chois’ restaurant supply business as a salesman. A couple of weeks before their deaths, the Chois rehired Kim as a salesman and loaned him $6,000 to purchase a car and pay some bills.

On the night of July 27, 2013, the Chois’ next-door neighbor saw a car back into the Chois’ driveway. Two men got out of the vehicle and approached the Chois’ front door. The older of the two was wearing a baseball cap and carrying a box of apples. The neighbor saw Mrs. Choi answer the door and invite the men inside. A short while later, the neighbor heard "squealing" that she initially thought was an animal, but realized might be her neighbors. From her driveway and through the Chois’ partially open blinds, the neighbor could see a shadow making striking motions. The neighbor attempted to call Mrs. Choi by phone, but she did not answer. The neighbor, who did not speak English, called her sister and brother-in-law for help. When they arrived, her brother-in-law looked through the Chois’ window and saw Mr. Choi lying in a pool of blood. The brother-in-law called 911 at 9:48 p.m. The neighbor estimated that 15 to 20 minutes elapsed between the time she saw the shadow through the blinds and her brother-in-law calling 911.

When the police arrived, they found the Chois dead inside their home. Mr. Choi was lying in the foyer with his head blocking the door to the basement. He had suffered 16 stab wounds from a knife that was at least seven-and-a-half inches long, and had multiple contusions from a baton-like object on his head, back, abdomen, and side. The medical examiner determined that three of the stab wounds punctured Mr. Choi's heart, causing his death, and that the blunt force trauma to his head and torso had also contributed to his death.

Mrs. Choi was discovered on the kitchen floor. She had multiple stab wounds on her back and shoulder from a knife that was at least three inches long, her throat had been cut, and she also had blunt force injuries to her head, rib fractures on both sides of her body, and bruising on her hands and arms. The medical examiner determined that Mrs. Choi's death was caused by the knife wound to her throat.

Officers found a box of apples on the dining room table and a bloody fingerprint, later identified as belonging to Kim, on the tassel of the blinds in the dining room. The first and second floor of the home were methodically searched, and, despite the large volume of blood present in the areas where the Chois were found, no blood was found on the second floor. The basement appeared undisturbed, and the Chois’ son later found $100,000 in cash hidden underneath a coffee table in the basement.

Knowing that it was common for the perpetrator of a stabbing to injure himself, the lead detective notified local hospitals to look out for people seeking treatment for knife injuries. The following morning, officers received a call from personnel at Gwinnett Medical Center that Kim had arrived with substantial knife wounds to his fingers and hand. Surveillance video showed Kim and a younger male in the waiting room of the medical center. The police arrived and interviewed Kim, who reported that he had been robbed the previous evening in the parking lot of a shopping center and cut his hand while attempting to get the knife away from his assailant. Kim said that he did not call the police because the robbery was only for $100, and he did not want any problems. The police took photographs of Kim at the hospital. While those photographs showed a deep wound across the fingers on the inside of Kim's right hand, they did not depict any other visible injuries to Kim's head, face, arms, or legs.

Meanwhile, based upon the unique sticker located on the box of apples, the lead detective traced the apples back to Assi Farmer's Market. Surveillance video obtained from the market showed Kim wearing a baseball cap and purchasing the box of apples at 7:46 pm on the night of the murders. Cell phone records showed that Kim's phone was near the Chois’ house on the night of the murders around the same time that neighbors called 911.

After officers arrested Kim and searched his vehicle, they found blood on the foot pedals, turn signal knob, gearshift, steering wheel, and driver's side door panel. Blood was also found on the driver's side and passenger's side exterior door handles, as well as the floorboard on the front passenger's side. A test of the blood found on the turn signal showed two DNA profiles: Kim's and Mr. Choi's. The receipt for a box of apples was also found in Kim's vehicle. Police searched Kim's apartment and found bloody clothing and the baseball cap that Kim had been wearing in the Assi market surveillance video.

At trial, Kim admitted being present at the Chois’ home when they were murdered, but blamed their death on "Sam," an acquaintance whom Kim drove to the Chois’ home to discuss his possible employment at their restaurant supply business. Kim testified that the men brought the box of apples as a gift for the Chois, which he explained was a common practice in Korean culture; after being in the home for a short time, Kim claimed that Sam attacked the Chois with a knife and baton-like object. Kim testified that he believed some of Mr. Choi's blood got on him during the attack, that his fingerprint got onto the tassel after he tried to open the blinds to shout for help, and that he got the wound on his hand defending himself from Sam's knife attack. Kim testified that he eventually ran from the house and jumped into the car, after which Sam appeared and jumped into the car before Kim could drive off. When Kim arrived home, he called a friend and asked him to bring clothes and a towel. The next morning, that friend accompanied Kim to the hospital to get the wound on his hand treated.

When asked why he did not call the police, Kim testified that he had a "very bad experience" with the police and, as a result, he did not trust them. He admitted that he repeatedly lied to the police during their investigation until confronted with contradictory evidence, but he attributed those lies to his distrust of the police.

Kim alleges that, because the State's case was based solely on circumstantial evidence, and because he presented a "reasonable" hypothesis of his innocence that ...