McCullum v. State

899 S.E.2d 171

MCCULLUM

v.The STATE.

S23A0927

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: March 5, 2024

Jerry W. Chappell II, Georgia Public Defender Council, 270 Washington Street, S.W., #6080, Atlanta Georgia 30334, for Appellant.

Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Matthew Blackwell Crowder, Assistant Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta Georgia 30334-1300, Clifton Lance Cross, Deborah D. Wellborn, A.D.A., Sherry Boston, District Attorney, Shannon Elysia Hodder, A.D.A., Dekalb County District Attorney’s Office, 556 North McDonough Street, Suite 700, Decatur Georgia 30030, for Appellee,

Pinson, Justice.

In November 2019, Appellant Samuel Earl McCullum was convicted of the 1998 rape and malice murder of Monica Blackwell and the 1999 rape of C.C.¹ McCullum contends on appeal that his convictions for the malice murder and rape of Blackwell, who died of cocaine intoxication and blunt-force trauma, were not supported by sufficient evidence.² As to malice murder, McCullum argues that the evidence was not sufficient because no evidence showed that he intoxicated Black-well or otherwise connected him to the drugs she took. As to Blackwell’s rape, he argues the evidence was not sufficient because the evidence did not exclude his hypothesis that he and Blackwell had a consensual sexual relationship. But the evidence, which we recount in detail below, was sufficient to authorize the jury to find that McCullum’s actions caused Blackwell’s death and to convict him of malice murder. The evidence was also constitutionally sufficient to convict McCullum of Blackwell’s rape: evidence that Black-well was found partially clothed and beaten by the side of the road with McCullum’s sperm in her vagina authorized the jury to reject his hypothesis that they had consensual sex. Finally, with respect to the conviction for the rape of C.C., McCullum contends that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to dismiss that count on constitutional speedy trial grounds and in denying his motion to sever that count from the counts related to Blackwell’s murder and rape, but we conclude that the trial court applied the correct standards and did not abuse its discretion by denying the speedy trial motion or the motion to sever.³

1. The Evidence at Trial

The evidence at trial, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, showed the following.

(a) Evidence of Blackwell’s Rape and Murder

Bonita Cox, Blackwell’s cousin, last saw Blackwell in early August 1998. Blackwell was a recovering drug addict, had been in rehab, and, according to Cox, was "being a mother" to her son. On the last day Cox saw her, Blackwell was with a man whom Cox had never seen before. At trial, Cox identified McCullum in the courtroom as the man she saw Blackwell with that day. Blackwell introduced Cox to McCullum, said she would be back later, and left with him. After that, Cox never saw Blackwell alive again.

On August 6, 1998, a group of friends saw a body on the roadside and reported it to the police, This turned out to be Blackwell, who was partially clothed and "barely alive." Blackwell was transported to the hospital, where she died,

Dr. Gerald Gowitt, the medical examiner who performed Blackwell’s autopsy, listed her cause of death as, "acute cocaine intoxication." Dr. Gowitt testified that Blackwell had several abrasions on her face; a tooth knocked out, which was located in her esophagus; hemorrhages and bruises on the back of her head; and other similar blunt-force impacts to both sides of her head—all of which were consistent with someone hitting or beating her. Blackwell also had a "large amount" of benzoylecgonine, "a cocaine breakdown product," in her blood.

Dr. Gowitt explained that cocaine is a stimulant that raises the user’s pulse and blood pressure, and "something you really don’t want to have happen to you" while under the influence of cocaine is another event, such as a beating or rape, that raises the pulse and blood pressure even more. Dr. Gowitt believed Blackwell died because, while she was under the influence of cocaine, she experienced "a lot of trauma to the head," which would have raised her pulse and blood pressure. Dr. Gowitt was unable to determine from the autopsy if Blackwell had been raped but opined that, if she had been, that too would have contributed to her death in combination with the beating and cocaine. He concluded that Blackwell died because of "[t]he combination of acute cocaine intoxication superimposed on all of these head injuries."

During the autopsy, Dr. Gowitt also did a sexual assault workup on Blackwell, consistent with the standard office policy at the time for "any female that is murdered." A GBI forensic scientist identified the presence of sperm on the vaginal smear collected during Blackwell’s autopsy, developed a DNA profile from the sperm, and added that DNA profile to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

A GBI forensic serologist tested Black well’s shorts but found no seminal fluid. In response to a hypothetical scenario posed by the State, the serologist agreed that the absence of seminal fluid on Blackwell’s shorts was more consistent with her being raped and then dropped on the side of the road than it was with having consensual sex. If Blackwell had consensual sex, dressed, and walked around afterwards, gravity would have caused the seminal fluid to leave her body, and the fluid likely would have been found on her shorts.

In 2002, the DNA evidence collected during the investigation of Blackwell’s rape and murder was matched to McCullum via CODIS.

(b) Evidence of C.C.’s Rape

On the evening of May 9, 1999, C.C, was walking along Lawrenceville Highway when a car approached her and the man driving offered her a ride, which she accepted. The man told C.C. he needed to stop by his work, pulled into an auto repair shop, locked the gate, and then pulled his car into one of the bays and closed the bay door. C.C. was worried at this point but was unable to flee because there was a guard dog on the property that "seemed to be very vicious." The man raped C.C. in the back of the car. C.C. testified that the man was "very aggressive. So the more I fought him, the more aggressive he would become with me." The man then made C.C. exit the car and go into the bathroom, where he raped her again and tried to force her to give him oral sex; when she refused, he "hit" her and,"knocked [her] to the ground," and then raped her again. Eventually, the man drove C.C. back to her apartment, letting her go after she promised she would not "tell on him" because she was "on the run" (she had come to Georgia because she was trying to avoid arrest for drug charges in Ohio).

C.C.’s friends convinced her to report the rape, and she did. But she gave the police a fake name because she did not want to be arrested for the pending charges in Ohio. C.C. submitted to a sexual assault examina- tion, and her sexual assault kit was sent to the GBI, where an analyst generated a DNA profile from sperm that was present on a vaginal swab collected during C.C.’s examination. That DNA was entered into CODIS. In 2002, the DNA evidence collected during C.C.’s sexual assault examination was matched to McCullum via CODIS.

At trial, C.C. identified McCullum in the courtroom as the man who gave her a ride and raped her in May 1999. Sherri Meeks, the owner and operator of the auto repair shop that employed McCullum at the time of C.C.’s assault, testified that McCullum sometimes did repairs overnight, alone, and that McCullum therefore had keys to the property, which was fenced. Meeks also confirmed that a German Shepherd guard dog who was not "friendly to strangers" stayed on the property at night to guard it.

(c) Evidence of the CODIS Match and Other Assaults

In 2007, investigators from Georgia traveled to North Carolina, where, McCullum was incarcerated, to obtain a buccal swab from him to confirm the CODIS matches to the DNA collected from Blackwell’s autopsy and C.C.’s sexual assault examination. The buccal swab was tested and confirmed the match to the DNA collected in C.C.’s case in 2007;⁴ the match to the DNA from Blackwell’s case was confirmed in 2017.⁵ McCullum’s DNA was also matched to evidence collected during the investigation of the 1995 rape and murder of Theresa Blackwell (no relation to Monica Blackwell) in North Carolina, the 1998 rape and murder of Tamika Withers in Fulton County, Georgia, and the 2002 rape of a young woman, A.J., in Kentucky. At trial, the State introduced evidence of each of these assaults under OCGA § 24-4-413,⁶ which showed the following.

As to the rape of A.J. in Kentucky, officers responded to a 911 call from an auto repair shop reporting a rape in progress. When officers arrived at the shop, they first encountered McCullum and then heard a woman, A.J., screaming. Officers detained McCullum and then found A.J. chained to a pipe and bound with duct tape with her pants around her ankles. McCullum worked at the shop.

During the investigation of A.J.’s rape, officers in Kentucky learned that McCullum had lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1995, contacted police in North Carolina, and suggested "it might be a good idea" for them to cheek for any unsolved homicides during that time. North Carolina police located a sexual assault kit with DNA evidence from the unsolved 1995 rape and murder of Theresa Blackwell, who had been found dead on the side of the road with her blouse pulled up, dried blood on her face and in her hair, and ligature marks on her neck, hands, and ankles; a fan belt and bungee cord were also found near her body. The DNA evidence from Theresa Blackwell’s case produced a match in CODIS to McCullum. North Carolina police were able to confirm that in 1995, McCullum worked at an auto repair shop located less than a mile from where Theresa’s...