Schmitt v. State

901 S.E.2d 102

SCHMITT

v.The STATE.

S24A0036

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: April 30, 2024

Superior Court, Fulton County, Melynee Leftridge, Judge

John Aspinwall Garland, Donald Franklin Samuel, Kristen Wright Novay, Garland, Samuel & Loeb, P.C., 3151 Maple Drive, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30305, Matthew Kyle Winchester, Law Offices of Matthew K. Winchester, Garland Law Building, 3151 Maple Drive NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30305, 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, Mary Catherine Norman, Assistant Attorney General, Elizabeth Haase Brock, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Fani T. Willis, District Attorney, Kevin Christopher Armstrong, Senior A.D.A., Mario Kladis, A.D.A., Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, 136 Pryor Street SW, Third Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, for Appellee.

Peterson, Presiding Justice.

Bryan Keith Schmitt challenges his malice murder conviction for the death of Hamid Jahangard, who died after being hit by Schmitt’s car.¹ On appeal, Schmitt argues that the trial court committed reversible error by denying his request to instruct the jury on the defense of accident as to all counts. We conclude that the trial court erred because at least slight evidence supported that charge. Because the State has not carried its burden to show that it is highly probable that this error did not contribute to the verdict, we reverse Schmitt’s conviction. And because the trial court also erred in declining the accident instruction as to the related counts of felony murder and aggravated assault, the verdicts on those counts cannot stand. But the evidence was legally sufficient to sustain Schmitt’s conviction, and so the State may retry him.²

The evidence at trial, including video recordings played for the jury, showed the following.³ On July 30, 2019, Schmitt was driving his regular commute home from work through a residential area when he saw Jahangard standing by the road. Jahangard made a bouncing or throwing motion with his arm. Schmitt heard a "very loud noise" and felt something slam into the front of his car, "hit [his] brakes," continued driving, turned around, and returned to where he saw Jahangard standing near trashcans in a driveway. Schmitt stopped his car in the right lane, with a lane separating him from Jahangard on the left, and rolled his window down. They argued across traffic as cars passed Schmitt’s stopped car.

The nature of the argument is unclear. At trial, Schmitt testified that he was leery about pulling into the driveway immediately, as he "didn’t know who this was or what the situation might have been." He testified that he asked whether Jahangard "thr[e]w a golf ball or what happened[,]" and Jahangard yelled in response — in a dismissive and loud voice — for him to "get the f**k out of here." In contrast, Jahangard’s brother, Manoucher Jahangard, testified that he and Jahangard were talking on the phone⁴ when someone talking in a "very loud and fast and angry" manner⁵ interrupted their conversation. Manoucher heard Jahangard sound "very surprised" and repeat three times, "I didn’t throw anything to you, sir[,]" but the yelling continued. After Jahangard repeated for the third time, "I didn’t throw anything to you, sir[,]" Manoucher heard "a bunch of noise" and Jahangard say "[g]et away from my face," but then the phone disconnected.⁶

During this argument, Schmitt decided to turn left into the driveway and accelerated his car to between fifteen and sixteen miles per hour. During that turn, Schmitt’s brake light came on at least once,⁷ and he began to veer his car away from Jahangard to the right. Schmitt’s car struck Jahangard.⁸

Jahangard immediately fell to the driveway, hit his head, and began bleeding. Schmitt put his car in park and, without turning it off, exited to render aid. Schmitt kneeled next to Jahangard and stabilized his head while awaiting paramedics. Jahangard died days later, and the autopsy revealed the cause of death as "blunt force injuries of the head due to a motor vehicle collision, car versus pedestrian."

At trial, Schmitt testified in his own defense, denied using the car as a weapon, and denied intentionally striking Jahangard. Schmitt testified that he turned into the driveway "to try to sort out what happened and to see if there was any damage to [his] car." He knew that he was too far up the road to turn left, and he thought he could make a U-turn to turn right into the driveway without impacting Jahangard, but he misjudged the turning radius of his car.⁹ As he turned, Schmitt checked oncoming traffic, his rearview mirror, and his side mirror, losing his focus on Jahangard. When he realized the trashcans were directly in front of him, he instinctively cut his wheel to the right and hit the brakes to miss them. Schmitt testified that, upon hitting Jahangard, his military medical training took over and he immediately began to render aid.¹⁰ Throughout his testimony, he referred to the collision as an accident, and he insisted that he did not intend to harm, hurt, scare, intimidate, or kill Jahangard. He testified that he "was trying to avoid an accident" and "was trying to de-escalate the situation."

Both parties’ experts acknowledged that the steering wheel was turned to the right before the collision, which kept the center of the car from striking Jahangard,¹¹ Schmitt’s expert specifically testified that the front left comer of Schmitt’s car struck Jahangard, and the State’s expert conceded that only a few inches — "the very left edge" — of the car struck Jahangard. The experts also opined that once Schmitt began his turn, a collision was inevitable. The State’s expert opined that a black stain on Jahangard’s pants, which were in evidence, was caused by a tire transfer, meaning that the car’s front tire rolled over Jahangard’s left foot and ankle, and that the ear’s rear tire rolled over his knee. Schmitt’s expert opined that the car did not run over Jahangard’s leg, as the GBI investigative report did not reveal automotive paint, plastic, or grease on Jahangard’s clothes and based on the expert’s review of a video of the collision.

Several witnesses also testified at trial. Donald Utroska, Jr., testified that he was driving when "all of a sudden" he saw "garbage cans and a car" move "swiftly" into the driveway. The car moved into the driveway "awfully fast" and sent "very tall garbage cans in the air a good three to four feet." Utroska pulled over when he saw Jahangard on the driveway with pooling blood, and Schmitt asked him to call 911. He also testified that Schmitt explained that Jahangard threw a golf ball at his car, Schmitt and Jahangard argued, and when Schmitt pulled over to discuss it, Jahangard jumped in front of his car. After paramedics arrived, Utroska offered his contact information to Schmitt and found it "a little strange" that Schmitt declined. Utroska described Schmitt’s demeanor as "very emotionless, very plain[,]" and "nonchalant."

Jessica Woodsen testified that she lived across the street from where the collision occurred and her security camera recorded the collision. Though she did not see the collision, she saw out of her window two men standing and one man lying on the driveway across the street. She described the man in the driveway as "laid out," unmoving, with his eyes open, with blood coming from his head, and with his left leg hyperextended at the knee. When she arrived, the car was still running and Sehmitt was attempting to render aid to Jahangard. She reprimanded Schmitt for attempting to move Jahangard’s leg, which was under the back bumper and behind the driver’s side back wheel. Woodsen testified that, when asked what happened, Schmitt told her that Jahangard was walking, yelled something, and threw something at his car. When Schmitt turned in the driveway to see what happened, Jahangard pushed a trashcan onto his car, and the trashcan bounced off of Schmitt's ear and knocked Jahangard over. Woodsen described Schmitt’s demeanor as "a little defensive" and as not giving the impression that he was concerned about Jahangard.

Mokraine Lhocine testified that he was driving a company van that contained a dashcam that recorded the collision. Lhocine saw a stopped car in the middle of the road with cars passing it, then the car made a "quick" turn and hit trashcans. As Lhocine continued down the road, he saw that the door of the car was open, the driver was holding somebody on the ground, and "there was a lot of blood around him."

Captain Jeremiah Green of the Sandy Springs Fire Department testified that, when he arrived, Schmitt was kneeling beside Jahangard and focused on holding Jahangard’s neck in a way that protected the spine from further injury. Schmitt told Captain Green that he did not know what happened or remember if Jahangard was hit. Schmitt "mentioned something about a golf ball, and he mentioned that the patient was yelling at him."

James Durden, a paramedic, testified that when he arrived Jahangard was unconscious but breathing spontaneously, lying on his back with a significant amount of blood coming from the back of his head and ears, with possible hyperextension to his left leg. Schmitt did not remember whether Jahangard "went up and over or underneath" the car, and Durden was "a little struck that there wasn't more emotion or concern[.]"

Police arrived around 40 minutes after the collision, and it had started raining.¹² By that point, firefighters had moved the trash cans, Schmitt had been permitted to move his vehicle, the rain washed "[n]inety-nine percent of the blood away[,]" and a moving van had driven through the driveway. Police officers nevertheless photographed the scene, a golf ball found in a neighbor’s yard, and Schmitt’s car. Police permitted Schmitt to drive...