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S09A1800. ALLEN v. THE STATE
State: Georgia
Court: Supreme Court
Docket No: S09A1800
Case Date: 01/25/2010
Preview:Final Copy 286 Ga. 392 S09A1800. ALLEN v. THE STATE. Benham, Justice. Appellant Eugene Markeith Allen was convicted of and sentenced for the felony murder of Raheem Wilson (with aggravated assault of Wilson serving as the predicate felony), the aggravated assaults of Brandon Smalls and Daniel Johnson, and three counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.1 On appeal, Allen maintains he was not afforded effective assistance of counsel and challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and several evidentiary rulings. Finding no error that would authorize reversal of any of the convictions, we affirm. 1. Raheem Wilson died as a result of a gunshot wound to his head. He suffered his fatal injury as he sat on outdoor steps in a Savannah apartment complex. Daniel Johnson, one of Wilson's companions and a victim of one of the aggravated assaults, was shot in the hand and right buttock, while Brandon Smalls,

The crimes were committed on May 26, 2004. A true bill of indictment charging appellant was returned by a Chatham County grand jury on July 28, 2005. Appellant's trial commenced on May 22, 2006, and concluded on May 25 with the jury's return of its guilty verdicts. On June 13, 2006, the trial court entered appellant's sentences: life imprisonment for felony murder, a concurrent 20-year sentence for one aggravated assault and a consecutive 20year sentence for the other aggravated assault, and three consecutive five-year sentences for the convictions for firearm possession which are to be served consecutively to the concurrent 20-year aggravated assault sentence. Appellant's motion for new trial, filed June 13, 2006, and amended May 11, 2007, was the subject of a hearing held on December 3, 2007, and January 14, 2008. The order denying the amended motion was filed May 21, 2008. Pursuant to the notice of appeal filed on June 18, 2008, the appeal was docketed in this Court on July 15, 2009, and submitted for decision without oral argument.

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another companion and the victim of the other aggravated assault, was not injured. One of the victim's companions chased the shooter as he ran away, and fired several shots at him. A witness identified appellant as the person he saw come around the side of a building, shooting and running. A friend of appellant testified that he and appellant were driving in the complex together the day of the shooting; appellant got out of the car and talked to the victim; and appellant returned to the car where he told the friend the victim had robbed him. The friend also testified that appellant was bleeding when he arrived at the friend's apartment the evening of the shooting, and appellant told him "they" had tried to kill him. Another friend testified appellant had told him the day of the shooting that the victim had robbed him by taking two ounces of crack cocaine from appellant to sell and not giving appellant the proceeds from the sale. After the shooting, appellant told the other friend he had seen the victim sitting on the steps while appellant was driving through the apartment complex; appellant had gotten out of the car and snuck around a corner of a building where he donned a black cap, and ran toward the victim while he repeatedly fired his gun. According to the witness, appellant told him that one of the victim's companions shot appellant as appellant ran off. The victim's mother testified appellant had visited her several times the afternoon of the shooting, looking for the victim, and appellant had told her the victim had robbed him. The mother of appellant's children testified that, the night of the shooting, appellant came to her apartment in the same complex where the shooting took place, breathing heavily and wearing a shirt with bullet holes in it. The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which he was
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convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). 2. In the May 2006 trial, appellant sought to impeach a witness pursuant to OCGA
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