Woodall v. State

294 Ga. 624

754 S.E.2d 335

WOODALL

v.The STATE.

No. S13A1564.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Jan. 27, 2014.

Reconsideration Denied March 3, 2014.

Christopher Wayne Adams, Charleston, Stanley Boyd Young, Columbia, Kevin Robert Gough, Brunswick, Gabrielle Amber Pittman, Macon, J.D. Blevins, Brunswick, for appellant.

Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Atty. Gen., Paula Khristian Smith, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., Clint Christopher Malcolm, Asst. Atty. Gen., Samuel S. Olens, Atty. Gen., Jacquelyn Lee Johnson, Dist. Atty., Andrew J. Ekonomou, Asst. Dist. Attys., for appellant.

BENHAM, Justice.

Appellant Lecester “Buddy” Woodall, Jr., was convicted of felony murder and armed robbery in connection with the September 4, 2000, shooting deaths of his uncle John Lavelle Lynn and his uncle's employee Robert Van Allen.¹ The evidence in a light most favorable to the jury's verdict showed that the day before the murders, appellant enlisted the assistance of his brother-in-law, codefendant David Wimberly, in the armed robbery of Mr. Lynn who owned a wrecker for towing cars in his used auto business and who was known to carry a lot of cash.² Mr. Lynn's daughter testified that on the morning of the murders a man called and talked to Mr. Lynn, requesting a tow for a vehicle that was on Bladen Road by the railroad tracks. Prior to leaving to meet the caller, Mr. Lynn counted out $490 in cash for some bills he intended to pay that day, put the money in his wallet, and placed the wallet in the back pocket of his pants. He and Mr. Van Allen left the house. When the victims arrived at the Bladen Road location, which was in Glynn County and surrounded by a wooded area, appellant and his co-defendant ambushed and shot them. A man hunting in the area heard three to four gunshots and shortly thereafter discovered the victims' bodies next to the wrecker which still had the engine running. The man immediately called police. A father and son who had been riding all-terrain vehicles down Bladen Road earlier that day, saw a wrecker turn onto Bladen Road. A few minutes later, the father and son saw the wrecker parked near the place where Bladen Road traversed some railroad tracks and they saw two men, one standing near the wrecker and the other standing near a light blue or white car. The father and son testified that the car was positioned behind the wrecker and facing in the same direction as the wrecker as if it was about to be loaded and towed. The father testified that he also saw a pair of shoes lying in the grass near the man standing by the wrecker. The father and son rode past the wrecker and the men “a short ways,” but, because he had a feeling that something “was wrong,” the father decided to turn back around. At that point, the father and son saw the car, which they had assumed was broken down, suddenly pull out and drive away from the wrecker at a high rate of speed. As they headed back home, the son testified that he thought he saw someone lying behind the wrecker by the railroad tracks.

The police collected physical evidence which revealed Mr. Van Allen was shot three times with a .25 Lorcin pistol. The evidence also showed that a pearl-handled .25 Lorcin pistol and two other guns had been stolen from appellant's father's safe in May 2000. An acquaintance of appellant testified that sometime before the murders, he saw appellant with a .25 pearl-handled pistol and a 9mm Ruger. The medical examiner testified two of the three gunshots were fatal as to Mr. Van Allen—one to his head and another that went through his chest piercing his lungs and heart. The gunshot to Mr. Van Allen's head was made from a distance of 16 to 18 inches because there was gunpowder residue at the site of the entrance wound. Mr. Lynn died due to a gunshot to the back of the head. Authorities were unable to recover the bullet or shell casing which would have revealed the caliber of the weapon used to inflict Mr. Lynn's injury. The lead investigator on the case testified he had a discussion with the medical examiner wherein the medical examiner opined that Mr. Lynn was shot with a .38 caliber weapon; however, the medical examiner testified at trial that he could not determine what caliber weapon was used against Mr. Lynn. Still, police generally believed appellant and his co-defendant were both shooters, although appellant told police his co-defendant shot both victims. A forensic witness testified that the tire tracks located at the scene matched three of the four tires on appellant's light blue Pontiac 6000. The record also showed that when Mr. Lynn's body was discovered, his wallet was missing from his person; ³ but the wallet was recovered several months later, emptied of money and lying by the roadside in another county. The police traced the phone call requesting Mr. Lynn's wrecker services at Bladen Road to one of two pay phones located at a convenience store where appellant was captured on surveillance video the morning of the murders. Six months after the killings, appellant was questioned by police and ultimately confessed to his participation in the double homicide.

1. The evidence adduced at trial and summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

2. Appellant alleges his constitutional rights were violated because he contends a juror was illegally seated. Cynthia L. Battle, an African–American woman born in 1954, served on appellant's jury. When she received her jury summons, it contained her correct address and the name “Cynthia R. Battle.” Mrs. L. Battle did not think much of the name on the summons because her maiden name had been Rogers. When she arrived for jury service, she talked to a court employee about the name on her summons and was told that she was the correct person called for jury service. Mrs. L. Battle thus continued through the jury process and completed the juror questionnaire, including providing her correct vital statistics such as her date of birth. In addition to juror questionnaires, both parties had a copy of the master list of summoned jurors which listed Cynthia R. Battle as a Caucasian woman born in 1963. Over a period of two weeks, the parties conducted voir dire, and, while Mrs. L. Battle was subject to extensive questioning, neither party caught the discrepancy between the Cynthia Battle who was summoned and the Cynthia Battle who appeared for service. At the motion for new trial hearing, the clerk of court produced the master traverse jury list which indicated that both Cynthia R. and Cynthia L. were qualified to sit on the jury. Nevertheless, appellant contends Mrs. L. Battle was illegally seated and that he is entitled to a new trial. We disagree. Since appellant had access to the juror list which revealed that Cynthia R. Battle was a Caucasian woman born in 1963, he could have discovered, with the exercise of ordinary diligence, that there was a discrepancy and a basis to object when Mrs. L. Battle, who is African–American and was born in 1954, appeared for service. Appellant's failure to object before a verdict was rendered constitutes a waiver of this issue on appeal. Allen v. State, 299 Ga.App. 201(1)(a), 683 S.E.2d 343 (2009).

3. Appellant contends the trial court erred when it determined the State did not violate Batson v. Kentucky.⁴

Batson provides a three-step process for adjudicating a claim that a peremptory challenge was based on race: (1) the opponent of a peremptory challenge must make a prima facie showing of racial discrimination; (2) the proponent of the strike must then provide a race-neutral explanation for the strike; and (3) the court must decide whether the opponent of the strike has proven discriminatory intent. A trial court's finding as to whether the opponent of a strike has proven discriminatory intent is entitled to great deference and will not be disturbed unless clearly erroneous.

Bester v. State, 294 Ga. 195, 198–199(3), 751 S.E.2d 360 (2013) (citations and punctuation omitted). Because the State was seeking the death penalty in this case, attorneys asked prospective jurors during voir dire to rate themselves in regard to their feelings about the death penalty. At the conclusion of voir dire, appellant raised a violation of Batson based on race. The trial court determined a prima facie case had been made and the State was required to come forward with a non-discriminatory rationale for its strikes. In regard to juror Linda Dallas, who was African–American, the State stated that it struck her because she said, “all life is precious,” and because she rated herself a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 was defined as being against the death penalty and 10 was defined as being in favor of the death penalty “for every murder.” When questioned by the trial court, the prosecution affirmatively stated that no seated juror rated less than a 5 on the so-called “death penalty scale.” When the Batson issue was first raised to the trial court, appellant identified one Caucasian female who allegedly rated less than a 5 and was not struck, but the trial court denied the Batson challenge, finding no discriminatory intent on the part of the State. At the motion for new trial stage of the case, appellant identified two Caucasian males—Jurors Thorton and Galyean—whom he argues rated under a 5, but were not struck by the State. The record shows that during voir dire, Juror Thornton was initially asked how strongly he was in favor of the death penalty where 10 was the strongest and Juror Thorton rated himself a 3. The trial court made a point of clarification that the scale was how strongly the juror believed that the death penalty should be a sentencing option. At that point, Juror Thornton changed his rating to 10. Juror Galyean was selected to serve as an alternate, but never participated in deliberations or the...