Supreme Court of Georgia renders ruling in murderer's appeal case

May 18—ATLANTA, Ga. — The Georgia Supreme Court has rejected a Milledgeville convicted murderer's argument that there was insufficient evidence presented at his trial to support his convictions. The court vacated one of his sentences, however, and remanded another case back to trial court for re-sentencing.

Jemerius Trevontaine Goodman, convicted of murder and four counts of aggravated assault in November 2018, filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Georgia contending there was insufficient evidence presented at his trial.

The Milledgeville man, who is serving a life sentence plus 60 years in prison, further contended that the trial court had erred in admitting statements he made to detectives with the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office after invoking his right to remain silent.

But justices on the state's High Court ruled that the evidence was sufficient.

Justices concluded that Goodman "never unambiguously invoked" his right to remain silent.

"We reject Goodman's arguments and affirm, although we sua sponte vacate Goodman's void sentence for obstructing his own prosecution and remand the case for re-sentencing on that count," the justices decided Monday.

Goodman was convicted of felony murder, along with several other crimes stemming from the shooting death of Jyleel Solomon, as well as four counts of aggravated assault against four other victims.

Trial evidence showed that on Nov. 6, 2017, five friends — Keonna Lewis; her boyfriend, Brian Hitchcock; Elijawon May; along with brothers, Malik and DeMarquis Murray — were socializing outside the home of the Murray brothers.

Sometime later, a car drove by the residence.

The occupants of the car were identified as the murdered victim, Solomon, as well as Goodman, Brandon Walls and Malik Taylor, who was later convicted by a jury of the same offenses as Goodman during a trial in Baldwin County Superior Court in Milledgeville. It was determined that Taylor was driving the car, while Goodman sat in the front passenger's seat.

An exchange of gunfire erupted and Solomon was shot in the face by a bullet fired from a gun that Taylor fired.

Solomon died that night. An autopsy later revealed that his death was due to a bullet fracturing his skull and fragmenting in his brain.

Lewis, meanwhile, was wounded during the exchange of gunfire.

After the shooting and his arrest, Goodman was interviewed separately by Baldwin County Sheriff's Office Detectives Robert "Bob" Butch and Thomas "T.J." Hargrove."

"An incriminating statement Goodman made to Detective Hargrove was admitted at trial," the justices wrote.

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Alison T. Burleson presided over the trial, while then District Attorney Stephen A. Bradley and Assistant District Attorney Brent Cochran prosecuted the case.

Goodman, meanwhile, was represented at trial by Green Berry Moore III, a criminal defense attorney from Gray.

Even though Taylor was tried at the same time as Goodman, he did not participate in the appeal of his conviction to the Supreme Court of Georgia. During the trial, Taylor was represented by defense attorney Keri Thompson, of Milledgeville.

Justices said Goodman's attorney stipulated that his client was in custody during both interviews with detectives and validly waived his Miranda rights.

"The only issue with the statement that Goodman raised in the trial court and raises here is to whether he invoked his right to remain silent while talking to Detective Butch, making his subsequent statement to Detective Hargrove," the justices said.

The justices said Goodman never clearly invoked his right to remain silent.

"Goodman claims that he twice invoked his right to remain silent during Detective Butch's interrogation and thus the incriminating statements he made during a subsequent interrogation by Detective Hargrove must be suppressed," the Justices said.

"On two occasions, about five minutes apart, he said that he did not want to talkhe focuses on those statements in a vacuum," according to the Justices. "Reviewing those statements in context, however, shows that Goodman continued talking without prompting from the detective and did not unambiguously Invoke the right."

The justices concurred there was sufficient evidence as to Goodman's guilt.

"Goodman first argues that the evidence of his guilt was insufficient as to all crimes except using an altered gun," they wrote. "He asserts that there was insufficient proof that he fired any shots or was a party to the shooting, the jail note was unambiguous evidence of guilt, neither Walls nor Ford were credible, and the medical examiner's testimony that Solomon would have immediately lost consciousness contradicts the first responders' testimony that Solomon tried to speak with them."

The justices rejected Goodman's arguments.

They concurred that in considering a claim that evidence was insufficient in violation of his federal due process right under Jackson v. Virginia, U.S. 307 (99 SCt 2781.61 LE2d 560) 1979, our review is limited to an evaluation of whether the trial evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, is sufficient to authorize a rational trier of the fact to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which he was convicted."

The Justices noted that they put aside any questions about conflicting evidence, the credibility of witnesses, or the weight of the evidence. They left such to the discretion of the trier of fact.

"For this reason, we reject, outright, Goodman's arguments regarding the credibility of Walls and Ford, differences between what the medical examiner opined and what first responders reported, and the jail note's alleged ambiguity," they said. "Matters like these fall within the province of the fact-finder, not this Court."

Count 12 of the grand jury indictment charged that Goodman tampered with evidence with the intent of obstructing his own prosecution as to a charge of felony murder.

Goodman was convicted on that charge, too, and sentenced to serve 10 years concurrent with count four.

The Justices voided Goodman's sentence as to count 12.

They concurred that tampering with evidence for the purpose of obstructing one's own prosecution can only be sentenced as a misdemeanor.

"We, therefore, vacate Goodman's sentence as to count 12 and remand for re-sentencing regarding it," the justices said.