Williams v. State

314 Ga. 671

878 S.E.2d 553

WILLIAMS

v.The STATE.

S22A0794

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: September 20, 2022

George William Thomas, Brownstone P.A., PO Box 2047, Winter Park, Florida 32790, for Appellant.

Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Ashleigh Dene Headrick, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, Joshua Bradley Smith, A.D.A., Jared Tolton Williams, District Attorney, Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, 735 James Brown Boulevard, Suite 2400, Augusta, Georgia 30901, for Appellee.

Bethel, Justice.

Erik Albert Williams, Jr. was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of Deangelo Hudgins and the shooting of Albert Gilbert. On appeal, Williams raises three enumerations of error: (1) that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient as a matter of due process to support his convictions; (2) that the trial court erred by failing to grant a new trial when Williams's accomplice's guilty plea was admitted into evidence and used substantively against him; and (3) that the trial court abused its discretion by determining that his constitutional right to a speedy trial was not violated.¹ For the reasons that follow, we affirm Williams's convictions.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence presented at trial showed the following. On July 18, 2010, Hudgins left a party with his then-girlfriend, Atalecia Anderson, and several of her friends. While Anderson was driving, one of her friends, Shardae Davis, and Hudgins got into an argument in the car. The argument escalated, and Anderson pulled the car over to the side of the road. As the argument continued, Shardae's brother, Tony Davis, arrived at the car. Tony was informed by another passenger that Hudgins had harmed Shardae. Tony and Hudgins then got into a physical altercation.

After the incident, Tony, Shardae, and two other passengers, Trenay Johnson and Jasmine Johnson, left to go to the apartment complex where Trenay and Jasmine lived. On his way to the apartment, Tony called Williams to tell him what happened. During the call, Trenay gave Williams directions to the apartment.

Anderson and Hudgins left separately in Anderson's car. At some point, Hudgins asked to exit the car so that he could walk home. While Hudgins was walking, he called Gilbert and asked him to pick him up and drive him to Trenay and Jasmine's apartment so he could speak with Tony. After they arrived at the apartment, Hudgins and Gilbert knocked on the door and relayed a desire to speak with Tony but were told by someone inside to leave.

As Hudgins and Gilbert walked back into the parking lot, they saw that another car was blocking Gilbert's car. When they approached the passenger side of the car to ask why it was blocking them in, two shots were fired at them. Both Gilbert and Hudgins were hit. Gilbert was shot in the hip. The shot fractured his hip and caused permanent damage. Hudgins was shot in the chest and died as a result of his injuries. Neither victim was armed. The car from which the shots were fired was later identified as belonging to Williams's accomplice, Edwin Cruz.

A few days after the shooting, Williams called Tony. During this call, Williams apologized "for bringing that drama to th[e] apartment" but stated that he "d[idn't] give a damn who he is, he ain't had the right putting his hands on [Tony's] sister and none of that."

Williams was later arrested and interviewed by the police. After receiving Miranda warnings,² Williams admitted that he and Cruz drove to the apartment complex that night. Williams also admitted that he shot the gun but claimed that he shot at Hudgins and Gilbert in self-defense because he was scared.

2. Williams first contends that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient under Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U. S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), to support his convictions because he presented evidence that he shot Hudgins and Gilbert in self-defense. See OCGA § 16-3-21 (a) ("[A] person is justified in using force which is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or herself or a third person or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."). Williams claims that no rational trier of fact could have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt because he presented sufficient evidence supporting his self-defense claim. Namely, Williams argues that the evidence showed that Hudgins acted aggressively earlier in the evening; "was a large, fit person"; had consumed alcohol that evening; and approached Williams "in the dark of the night and placed Williams in reasonable apprehension of death or bodily injury." We disagree that the evidence presented was insufficient.

When evaluating a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence [as a matter of constitutional due process], we view all of the evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the verdict and ask whether any rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which he was convicted.

Jones v. State , 304 Ga. 594, 598 (2), 820 S.E.2d 696 (2018) (citing Jackson , 443 U. S. at 318-319 (III) (B), 99 S.Ct. 2781 ). Here, the State presented evidence that Hudgins and Gilbert simply walked up to Cruz's car just before they were shot. Additionally, the State presented evidence from which the jury could infer that Williams fired the shots not in self-defense, but rather in retribution for the earlier altercation between Hudgins and Shardae. Such evidence included statements Williams made to Tony two days after the shooting in which he said that Hudgins had no right to put his hands on Shardae. Thus, despite his claim of self-defense, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdicts, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to find Williams guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson , 443 U. S. at 319 (III) (B), 99 S.Ct. 2781. See also Harris v. State , 313 Ga. 225, 229 (2), 869 S.E.2d 461 (2022) ("We leave to the jury the resolution of conflicts or inconsistencies in the evidence, credibility of witnesses, and reasonable inferences to be derived from the facts, and we do not reweigh the evidence." (citations and punctuation omitted)); Howard v. State , 298 Ga. 396, 398 (1), 782 S.E.2d 255 (2016) ("A jury is free to reject a defendant's claim that he acted in self-defense." (citation omitted)).

3. Williams next enumerates as error the trial court's failure "to grant a new trial when [Cruz's] plea^{[3 ]} was admitted into evidence and used substantively against [Williams]." The central problem with this claim of error is that Cruz's guilty plea (and subsequent conviction) was never admitted into evidence. Williams never called Cruz as a witness, and the State never introduced evidence of Cruz's plea and conviction. We cannot review the admission of evidence for error if it was never admitted.

Nevertheless, Williams's argument in support of this enumeration tries to assert that the trial court's purported ruling to allow the impeachment of Cruz via his guilty plea had the effect of impairing Williams's constitutional due process right to present a "complete defense." Assuming, without deciding, that the trial court made a definitive ruling as to whether Cruz's guilty plea would have been admitted into evidence⁴ and that Williams's claim of error presents a cognizable due process claim,⁵ we note that such a claim would require a showing of harm. But no evidence that could provide a basis for the evaluation of harm appears in the record. Because Cruz never testified under oath, nor did his counsel make a proffer⁶ to the trial court providing the substance of his would-be testimony, it is impossible to determine whether any supposed error leading to the exclusion of his testimony resulted in harm to Williams. This deficiency is fatal to the preservation of the sort of claim Williams attempts to construct.⁷ See Fuss v. State , 271 Ga. 319, 321 (3), 519 S.E.2d 446 (1999) ("If [the appellant] did not intend to acquiesce in the court's ruling, he should have made apparent in some proper way what the testimony would have been, for without this showing this court can not [sic] determine whether injury resulted." (citation and punctuation omitted)). See also Harris v. State , 314 Ga. 238, 290 n.82, 875 S.E.2d 659 (2022) (agreeing with the trial court's conclusion that the appellant had not preserved a claim of error because he did not call the witness to testify at trial); McKoy v. State , 303 Ga. 327, 332-334 (2), 812 S.E.2d 293 (2018) (concluding that the appellant failed to preserve a "claim that the trial court committed reversible error by ruling in limine that [evidence] would be admissible" as a prior inconsistent statement because the appellant "refused to testify on cross-examination and the disputed [evidence was] never admitted"); McAllister v. State , 351 Ga. App. 76, 86-87 (2), 830 S.E.2d 443 (2019) (concluding that the appellant waived his claim that the trial court erred in denying his motion in limine to limit the cross-examination of an expert witness by failing to call the witness to testify at trial). Without such evidence, our review would be entirely speculative.

See Luce v. United States , 469 U. S. 38, 42 (III), 105 S.Ct. 460, 83 L.Ed.2d 443 (1984) ("Any possible harm flowing from a district court's in limine ruling permitting impeachment by a prior conviction is wholly speculative. The ruling is subject to change when the case unfolds ... the district judge is free, in the exercise of sound judicial discretion, to alter a previous in limine ruling."). Therefore, this enumeration fails.

4. Finally, Williams argues that his...