Payne v. State

897 S.E.2d 809

PAYNE

v.The STATE.

S23A1205

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: February 6, 2024

Superior Court, Bartow County, Shepherd Lee Howell, Judge

Katherine Morgan Mason, Law Office of the Public Defender, 902 Greene Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901, 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, Stephany Julissa Luttrell, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Anthony Brett Williams, A.D.A., Paulding County District Attorney’s Office, 280 Constitution Boulevard, Room 2072, Dallas, Georgia 30132, for Appellee.

Colvin, Justice.

Appellant Austin Levi Payne appeals his convictions for felony murder and other crimes related to the death of one-year-old Journey Cowart ("Journey").¹ On appeal, Ap- pellant contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion for a directed verdict because the evidence was constitutionally and statutorily insufficient to show that he personally injured Journey or was a party to inflicting the injuries that resulted in her death. Appellant further argues that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding evidence of co-defendant Brandy Boyd’s drug use and erred in declining his request for a jury charge on grave suspicion. Lastly, Appellant claims that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to move to sever his trial. For the reasons that follow, Appellant’s claims fail.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the trial evidence showed the following. Journey was born on January 10, 2013, to Brandy Boyd and Blake Cowart. In April 2013, Blake Cowart died. In August 2013, Boyd met Appellant, and the two started dating and moved into an apartment together with Journey.

Multiple witnesses testified to observing bruises on Journey in the months leading up to her death. Four witnesses testified that in late 2013, they observed a bruise on Journey’s forehead and that Boyd’s explanation for the bruise was that Journey hit her head on the railing of her crib. A babysitter testified that she saw a bruise on Journey’s left cheek that looked like a handprint in November 2013. A friend testified that at some point, she saw a bruise on Journey’s ear, which Boyd said had resulted from Journey falling when she pulled up between the coffee table and the wall, and the friend suggested taking Journey to urgent care but was told by Boyd that it was unnecessary. A neighbor testified that, shortly before Journey died, he saw her with bruises on her neck, face, and arms.

On January 13, 2014, a week before Journey died, Boyd asked Mellodie Hunt, Blake Cowart’s mother, to watch Journey, who was sick at the time. Hunt noticed bruises on Journey’s back and took pictures, which were entered into evidence. Hunt testified that she took the pictures to keep as a record and that she was afraid because she did not know why Journey was so bruised. Hunt shared the pictures only with her husband and daughter, and she told her husband that she was going to call the police if Journey had a new bruise later in the week.

Boyd’s mother and stepfather testified that, when they toqk care of Journey on January 17, 2014, she had a bruised and swollen ear, which Boyd explained was the result of Journey falling when pulling up on a table. That same day, Hunt texted Boyd to confirm that Journey’s birthday party would take place the following day. The party was originally scheduled for January 10, 2014, the day of Journey’s first birthday, but it was rescheduled to January 18, 2014, because, according to Boyd, Journey was not feeling well. Appellant, Boyd, and Journey did not show up bo Hunt’s house on January 18. When Hunt texted Boyd to find out where they were, Boyd responded that they were at the doctor’s office because Journey was sick with croup. However, medical records showed that Journey never visited her pediatrician or the Floyd County Urgent Care in January 2014. Hunt texted Boyd multiple times over the following days, but Boyd did not respond.

A neighbor testified that oh the evening of January 21, 2014, Appellant and Boyd banged on his door, with Journey in Appellant’s arms, and asked him to drive them to the hospital because Journey appeared to have stopped breathing. The neighbor agreed and testified that Journey did not look well and that she was "pink" and stiff. Journey was pronounced dead at the hospital at 10:27 p.m. An autopsy report stated that injuries to Journey’s head and abdomen were each sufficient on their own to cause her death. The head injuries included a fractured skull, multiple areas of internal bleeding, and four bruises on the exterior of her scalp. The injuries to Journey’s abdomen included a torn stomach and liver, a distended stomach, multiple fractured ribs, and several external bruises. The medical examiner testified that the injuries to her head and abdomen were caused by direct force and that CPR could not have caused her abdominal injuries.

In addition to the fatal injuries to her head and abdomen, the autopsy revealed a fractured arm, a fractured leg, a prolapsed rectum, and numerous bruises all over her body. The medical examiner dated the fractured arm as one to two weeks old and the fractured leg as one to six weeks old at the time of death. She opined that a "shearing force," such as someone grabbing and shaking a person’s arm or leg, caused the fractures to her arm and leg. The medical examiner was unable to date the injury to Journey’s rectum but testified that it was caused by pressure inside her abdomen from her abdominal injuries. She concluded that Journey’s death was a homicide, caused by injuries for which there was no plausible explanation nor historical account to suggest an accidental injury.

On the day after Journey died, investigators with the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office searched Appellant and Boyd’s apartment. Among other things, investigators discovered a bloody bath towel, a bloody baby outfit, and a bloody baby pillow.

That same day, investigators interviewed Appellant and Boyd. Investigators testified that Appellant and Boyd told them the following information about Journey. Appellant said that on January 21, 2014, Journey woke up around 9:00 a.m., and he fed her. Boyd said that an hour later, she attempted to feed Journey, but she refused to eat. Then, they both said that they laid Journey down for a nap. They both told investigators that they woke her up from her nap in the early afternoon and gave her a bath before laying her down for another nap. They both said that at some point, they got her up from her nap and fed her formula because there was no milk in the house. Appellant stated that he later discovered that Journey had spit up some of her formula after having drunk half the bottle, that the formula "smelled bad," and that he thought it was "spoiled milk." Boyd also indicated that she thought Journey had ingested "bad milk," and said that Journey had a "tight" stomach and did not seem to be feeling well. Both Appellant and Boyd said that around 5:30 p.m., they called Appellant’s sister, a nurse, to tell her that Journey was throwing up and to get her advice.

They both said that later, Boyd’s stepfather dropped off some milk at their apartment, They said that Journey then started eating and drinking milk. They both stated that they put Journey to sleep in her crib in their bedroom. Appellant said that he heard Journey breathing rapidly, so he got her out of her crib, put her in his bed with him, and laid her on his chest. Appellant and Boyd said they both fell asleep in bed and woke up to find that Journey had stopped breathing. Appellant said he attempted to administer CPR, even though he did not know how. Then, they called 911 and ran upstairs, beating on neighbors’ doors until they found someone to drive them to the hospital.

Investigators testified that when asked about Journey’s previous injuries, Appellant and Boyd told them that Journey injured her ear. Boyd explained that four or five days prior to Journey’s death, Journey hit her ear on the coffee table, causing a bad cut. Boyd said that she took Journey to urgent care but did not sign in, as the wait was too long. According to Boyd, a nurse indicated that the cut on her ear would be fine. Appellant said that he bit Journey’s shoulder to try to wake her up when she was not breathing and accidentally hit Journey’s head on the door leading into the emergency room, Boyd stat- ed that Journey did not go to the doctor regularly, as Journey had never fallen, broken a bone, gotten cut, or been injured, but that she had been to the hospital for a bad cough when she was one month old.

2. Appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict because the trial evidence was insufficient as a matter of constitutional due process to show that he personally injured Journey or that he was a party to inflicting those injuries. He also argues that the trial evidence was insufficient under Georgia’s circumstantial-evidence statute, see OCGA § 24-14-6, because the evidence failed to exclude the reasonable hypothesis that Boyd inflicted Journey’s injuries without Appellant’s participation. We disagree and therefore affirm the trial court’s denial of Appellant’s motion for a directed verdict.

[1–3] "The standard of review for the denial of a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal is the same as for determining the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction." Shelton v. State, 313 Ga. 161, 168 (2), 869 S.E.2d 377 (2022) (citation and punctuation omitted). Evidence is sufficient as a matter of constitutional due process if "a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Fortson v. State, 313 Ga. 203, 209 (1), 869 S.E.2d 432 (2022) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, ...