Sauder v. State

901 S.E.2d 124

SAUDER

v.The STATE.

S24A0011

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: April 30, 2024

Superior Court, White County, Walter J. Matthews, Judge

Wade M. Crumbley, P. O. Box 306, McDonough, Georgia 30253, for Appellant.

Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Stephany Julissa Luttrell, Assistant Attorney General, Clint Christopher Malcolm, Assistant Attorney General, Meghan Hobbs Hill, Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Faith Donnell Worley, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334-1300, Gregory A. Futch, A.D.A., Enotah Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 14, Cleveland, Georgia 30528, William Jeffrey Langley, District Attorney, Enotah Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, 65 Courthouse Street, Box 6, Blairsville, Georgia 30512, for Appellee.

Warren, Justice.

Appellant Frederick Sauder was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in connection with the armed robbery of Wayne Alexander on August 4, 2016, and his shooting death several days later, on August 9 or 10.¹

In this appeal, Sauder contends that the evidence presented at his trial was legally insufficient to support several of his convictions. He also claims that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting into evidence an excerpt of a phone call he made while in jail awaiting trial, that the court committed several instructional errors, that the State failed to disclose evidence that two witnesses had "deals" in exchange for their testimony at trial, and that his trial counsel provided constitutionally ineffective assistance in several respects. Finally, he contends that the cumulative effect of these alleged errors and deficiencies entitles him to a new trial. As we explain below, we vacate Sauder’s conviction for possession of a firearm during the commission of aggravated assault to correct a merger error, but we affirm his other convictions.

1. The evidence presented at Sauder’s trial showed the following. In 2016, 66-year-old Alexander, who was in poor health and had dementia, lived alone in a mobile home on his property in Cleveland, Georgia. Joshua Cunningham lived on a farm adjacent to Alexander’s property with several members of his family and his girlfriend, Heather Holland. Cunningham and Holland often hung out and smoked methamphetamine with Sauder, Luke McClure, and McClure’s wife—all of whom also stayed on the farm.

On August 4, 2016, Cunningham, Holland, Sauder, and his friend Justin Davis were at the farm when one of them "pointed out" Alexander’s mobile home and mentioned that it was "abandoned." They walked to the home, peered in the windows, and eventually walked back to the farm. According to Davis, he and Sauder discussed going to the mobile home again later. That night, they returned to Alexander’s property, carrying Sauder’s shotgun and tools "in case [they] needed to break in." They smoked methamphetamine in Alexander’s yard and then checked the doors to the mobile home, which were locked. They attempted to pry open a door, and Sauder kicked a sliding door several times before Alexander opened the door. They walked past Alexander, who said nothing.² Sauder, who was holding his shotgun, told Alexander to sit down.

Sauder took Alexander’s wallet, while Davis searched the home and gathered eight to 10 guns, which he found in Alexander’s closets, and a lockbox, which he found under Alexander’s bed. Davis then took a power saw and some climbing gear from Alexander’s outdoor shed; he loaded those items, the guns, and the lockbox into Sauder’s car. At some point, Davis noticed that Alexander’s arm was bleeding; he asked Sauder what happened, and Sauder said that Alexander "came at him." As Sauder and Davis tried to leave, Sauder’s car got stuck in Alexander’s muddy driveway. Sauder called Cunningham, and he and Holland soon arrived and towed Sauder’s car out of the driveway. Sauder then dropped off Davis at his house. Davis kept two guns, the saw, and the climbing gear, and Sauder kept the remaining items. The next day, Sauder asked Davis if he wanted to return to Alexander’s home, but Davis said, "No." Sauder told Davis that "he wanted to homestead the place," which Davis understood to mean that Sauder wanted to claim Alexander’s property for himself. Sauder said that he knew some people who could "get rid of’ Alexander.³

According to Cunningham, a few days later, on August 8, Sauder, who was a convicted felon and thus unable to purchase a gun, asked Cunningham to accompany him to a pawn shop to trade four guns that Sauder had for a new firearm. Cunningham agreed, and later that day, he and Sauder went to the pawn shop, and Cunningham traded four guns, three of which Alexander’s wife Melita Alexander ("Melita") identified at trial as belonging to Alexander, for a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle.⁴ Sauder carried the rifle out of the pawn shop, and he, Cunningham, and McClure later shot it on the farm for "target practice[ ]."⁵

The next day, August 9, Melita, who was separated from Alexander but still called him daily and kept many items at his home, spoke to Alexander on the phone around 3:30 p.m. She called him again around 9:30 p.m. When he did not answer, she called several more times throughout the night but received no response. Around 6:00 p.m. the next day, August 10, Melita and her boyfriend went to Alexander’s home to check on him. They saw tire tracks in the driveway, and they noticed that the door to Alexander’s shed, which was normally locked, was ajar. When Melita went inside the mobile home, she saw near the door several of her musical instruments, which she typically kept in a closet. The home was "ransacked." Melita noticed jewelry boxes and several empty mason jars, in which Alexander typically kept coins, on the floor in the bedroom, and several drawers were open. Alexander, who was dead and "stiff," was slumped over on the couch with a jacket covering his head. Investigators who responded to Melita’s 911 call found "pry marks" on one of the doors to the mobile home and a lock that had been cut off the outdoor shed. They collected four .22-caliber shell casings and two .22-caliber bullets from the scene.

According to Cunningham, Holland, and McClure, on August 10 (the day Alexander’s body was found), Sauder was carrying around a large number of coins.⁶ Holland and McClure’s wife took the coins to a bank and converted them to $125 in cash, and McClure’s wife used the money to rent a motel room.

In addition, Davis testified that at some point, Sauder told him that he "watched" Alexander’s "ex-wife shoot him"; Cunningham testified that Sauder told him at some point that he went inside Alexander’s home and Alexander "was already dead"; and McClure testified that Sauder stated at various times that he went into Alexander’s home, Alexander was "sick and wasn’t doing too good," Alexander "passed away," and Sauder covered him with a blanket. McClure also testified that at various points, Sauder asked McClure to accompany him to Alexander’s home (but McClure said "no"); Sauder had a "metal box" with paperwork in it and the guns that Melita identified as belonging to Alexander; Sauder asked McClure and other people who were hanging out with him if they had heard gunshots and said that he had just shot a bear; and Sauder asked McClure to cut his hair shortly after the murder.⁷

On August 11, the day after Alexander’s body was found, an investigator interviewed Cunningham, who told him about trading the guns for the rifle at the pawn shop on Sander’s behalf and about later shooting the rifle at the farm. With Cunningham’s permission, the investigator searched an area of the farm where Sauder often stayed and found 16 .22-caliber shell casings on the ground and numerous partially burned documents that had Alexander’s name on them in a burn barrel.

The next day, the investigator obtained a warrant for Sauder’s arrest. On August 16, police officers located Sauder at a motel in Athens. After attempting to communicate with him for about four hours outside his motel room, officers deployed chemical munitions; Sauder finally left the room, and he was arrested. Investigators then searched the motel room and Sauder’s car pursuant to a warrant and found several cards and documents that had Alexander’s name on them and numerous items that Melita identified at trial as belonging to her or to Alexander. Under a mattress in the motel room, investigators found the .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle.

Investigators later searched a house in which Sauder rented a room around the time of the shooting. Behind the house, they found a trash bag that contained a name tag displaying Sauder’s name and documents with Alexander’s name on them. They found more documents showing Alexander’s name in a burn barrel on the property. In addition, the owner of the property testified that he saw Sauder carrying the .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle.⁸

The medical examiner who performed Alexander’s autopsy recovered three .22-caliber bullets from his body and concluded that he had been shot several times from an indeterminate range, which caused his death, likely on August 9 or 10. A firearms examiner determined that all of the shell casings that were collected from Alexander’s home and 15 of the 16 shell casings that were collected from Cunningham’s farm were fired from the .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle.⁹

The State also presented a 40-second excerpt of a phone call Sauder made to his mother in August 2017, while he was in jail awaiting trial. During the call, Sauder said that "the other guy" was in jail. When his mother asked whether the "other guy" was "ready to point out" the person who shot Alexander, Sauder responded, "What do you mean? He wasn’t there." He then said that it was "hard to explain," and he would "not do it over the phone." An investigator testified that Davis was in jail at the time of the call and that the...