Smith v. State

FINAL COPY




                      S18A1191. SMITH v. THE STATE.


      HUNSTEIN, Justice.

      Appellant Jonathan Michael Smith appeals his convictions for murder and

related offenses arising out of the beating death of sixteen-year-old Cheyenne

Hair and her unborn child.1 On appeal, Appellant asserts only that the evidence


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          In February 2014, a Jackson County grand jury returned a ten-count
indictment charging Appellant with murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, two
counts of feticide, two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree, sexual
exploitation of children, family violence battery, and false imprisonment. Following
a trial conducted August 8-11, 2016, a jury found Appellant guilty on all counts. The
trial court sentenced Appellant to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole
for malice murder; life imprisonment for one count of feticide (to be served
concurrently with the sentence for malice murder); twenty years’ imprisonment for
each count of cruelty to children in the first degree (to be served consecutively);
twenty years’ imprisonment for sexual exploitation of children (to be served
consecutively); twelve months’ imprisonment for family violence battery (to be
served consecutively); and ten years’ imprisonment for false imprisonment (to be
served consecutively), for a total sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility
of parole plus seventy-one years. All other counts were merged or vacated by
operation of law.
        Appellant filed a motion for new trial in August 2016, which he amended in
December 2016. Following a hearing, the trial court denied the motion for new trial
as amended in May 2017, and Appellant filed a notice of appeal just days later. This
appeal was docketed to the August 2018 term of this Court and submitted for a
decision on the briefs.
was insufficient to support his conviction for false imprisonment. Finding no

error, we affirm.

      Reviewing the record in a light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence

adduced at trial established as follows. In December 2013, emergency personnel

and law enforcement responded to a residence in Jackson County, Georgia,

following Appellant’s 911 call reporting that his girlfriend, Cheyenne Hair, was

unresponsive. Appellant, who was then 34 years old, initially reported to law

enforcement that he had discovered Cheyenne’s lifeless body in the bedroom of

their shared residence when he had arrived home from work; he also reported

that a cable technician named “Chad” had been recently harassing Cheyenne.

Cheyenne was bruised about her face and body, and she was transported to a

local hospital where she later died. A medical examiner testified that the victim

died of blunt-force trauma to the head and was eight-weeks pregnant with

Appellant’s child at the time of her death.

      During a subsequent search of the residence, law enforcement observed

hasps on both interior and exterior doors, as well as windows that had been

glued shut; padlocks were discovered in the kitchen, and keys to the locks were

discovered elsewhere in the house. Investigators also discovered a cellular

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telephone secreted in a wall. A search of the smartphone revealed earlier images

of an obviously battered Cheyenne with duct tape over her mouth; in some

photographs, Cheyenne appears to be asleep or unconscious. The phone also

contained photographs of Cheyenne’s genitals, and timestamps reflect that the

photographs were taken just minutes before Appellant placed the 911 call.

Among the text messages discovered on the phone was one sent from Appellant

to Cheyenne’s mother concerning Cheyenne being unfaithful:

            I’m not [going to hit her]. She’s just scared I will cause I did
      everytime she’s let him in my house. Now she can’t let him in and
      he can’t get in. So he’s mad an she want’s to leave. What should
      I thank. The only reason she has been here is so she could see him
      why I’m at work. Now she can’t f**k him she wants to leave.
      That’s how I see it. I’ll be fine. I’m use to people doin me like this.
      Has been all my life.

      While he was in pre-trial detention, Appellant told other inmates that he

had kept Cheyenne locked in the house to prevent her from leaving and that

Cheyenne had died while the couple had been engaged in physically aggressive

sexual intercourse. Specifically, he told others that he had slammed her head

into a bed frame and then a wall during sex, leaving a dent in the wall, and that

he had dropped or pushed her onto her head following the completion of the

sexual act, after which her eyes rolled back into her head.

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      The jury heard testimony, elicited pursuant to OCGA § 24-4-404 (b), that

Appellant had restrained, abused, and raped other women with whom he had

been romantically involved. The jury also heard testimony from various

witnesses that no cable technician by the name of “Chad” could be found.

Appellant testified on his own behalf, characterizing Cheyenne’s death and

earlier injuries as accidental and attributable to consensual, rough sex.

      In his sole enumeration of error, Appellant contends that the evidence was

insufficient for the jury to consider the charge of false imprisonment and that he

was entitled to a directed verdict on the count. We disagree.

      “The standard of review for the denial of a motion for a directed verdict

of acquittal is the same as for determining the sufficiency of the evidence to

support a conviction.” Hester v. State, 

 (

) (2007).

When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence,

      the proper standard for review is whether a rational trier of fact
      could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
      See Jackson v. Virginia, 

 (

, 61 LE2d 560)
      (1979). “This Court does not reweigh evidence or resolve conflicts
      in testimony; instead, evidence is reviewed in a light most favorable
      to the verdict, with deference to the jury’s assessment of the weight
      and credibility of the evidence.” Hayes v. State, 

      (

) (2013).


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Thomas v. State, 

 (

) (2017).

      “A person commits the offense of false imprisonment when, in violation

of the personal liberty of another, he arrests, confines, or detains such person

without legal authority.” OCGA § 16-5-41 (a). “To sustain a conviction for

false imprisonment, the State must show evidence of an arrest, confinement, or

detention, and detention for a brief amount of time is sufficient.” (Citations and

punctuation omitted.) Moore v. State, 

 (

)

(2017). “It is for the jury to decide if the detention amounted to false

imprisonment.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Taylor v. State, 

, 131 (

) (2017).

      Here, there was ample evidence from which the jury could conclude that

Appellant had unlawfully imprisoned Cheyenne. The jury heard testimony that

there were hasps on both the interior and exterior doors of the residence, that

padlocks and keys were found in the house, that the windows were glued shut,

and that containers of epoxy were found in the residence; in fact, Appellant

admitted to making the modifications to the residence, though he denied that it

was to detain Cheyenne. Further, the State adduced a text message sent by

Appellant to Cheyenne’s mother indicating that Cheyenne was prevented from

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letting her alleged paramour into the residence and that, likewise, the alleged

paramour was prevented from gaining access to the house. Finally, the jury

heard testimony from a cellmate that Appellant admitted to keeping Cheyenne

locked in the house so that she was unable to leave. This evidence was

sufficient for the charge of false imprisonment to be submitted to the jury and

for the jury to return a guilty verdict on the count. See Pierre v. State, 

 (1) (

) (2015). See also Metts v. State, 

(1) (c) (

) (2009), abrogated on other grounds, Stephens v. State,

 (

) (2011).

      Finally, though not raised by Appellant as error, in accordance with this

Court’s standard practice in appeals of murder cases, we have reviewed the

record and find that the evidence, as discussed above, was sufficient to enable

a rational trier of fact to find Appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the

remaining crimes for which he was convicted. Jackson v. 

      Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.




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                        Decided December 10, 2018.

     Murder. Jackson Superior Court. Before Judge Mingledorff.

     Debra K. Jefferson, for appellant.

     J. Bradley Smith, District Attorney, Erica P. Shepley, Assistant District

Attorney; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton,

Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General,

Jason M. Rea, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.




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