Local police are declaring victory after, on November 22, 2024, the fourth person wanted in the October 31, 2024 murder of a 25-year-old man voluntarily surrendered to Walker County authorities.
Initially, deputies responding to a medical emergency call found the victim shot to death in the carport of a home from multiple gunshot wounds. The next day, the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office issued a search warrant on Alabama Highway in Ringgold, which led to a murder warrant obtained for a 21-year-old Ringgold woman a 21-year-old Rossville man.
The following Friday, deputies obtained arrest warrants for two other individuals, an 18-year-old man and a 23-year-old man, both of Rossville.
Investigatory Search Warrants
Investigators often cite unreliable evidence in their search warrant affidavits, such as eyewitness testimony and the testimony of paid informants.
One Supreme Court Justice aptly stated that eyewitness testimony is probably the most compelling and unreliable evidence in a criminal case.
In TV and movies, the moment that a witness points to a defendant and says “that’s the guy” is often the most pivotal moment in the trial. The witness may very well be accurate, but the witness is usually unreliable.
To a Marietta criminal defense lawyer, the difference between reliability and accuracy is critical. A broken clock is unreliable, but it’s accurate twice a day.
Human perception is inherently weak, Our eyes aren’t movie cameras. We remember things selectively. Eyewitness perception is even weaker, usually because of the stress of the incident.
Eyewitness reliability
Rather than curing the eyewitness reliability issue, lineups usually make things worse, at least for prosecutors. Most police departments use single-blind photo or live lineups. If the administering officer knows the suspect’s identity, the administering officer gives the witness clues, such as only showing one photo or putting the “right guy” in the center of a lineup.
We mentioned the effects of stress on memory and perception above. Most lineups are very stressful. Witnesses feel as if they must pick someone. A disclaimer (the suspect may or may not be in this lineup) eases stress and improves reliability. But administering officers rarely add such disclaimers.
Incidentally, suspects have a Fifth Amendment right to refuse to pose for pictures or stand in lineups. This refusal usually leads to an arrest, but an arrest was probably inevitable anyway.
The compensation for paid informants is often very subtle. Frequently, investigators approach people with criminal records who live in that area and ask them about a crime. These individuals often feel pressure to name names, so they don’t cause trouble for themselves or their families.
Compensation, or the lack thereof, is another critical factor in eyewitness reliability. Most people will say practically anything for love or money.
Arrest Warrants
Search warrants usually have brief shelf lives. Officers must normally execute search warrants within three or four hours. Otherwise, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer could successfully argue that the information is stale.
Arrest warrants are different. Once a judge issues an arrest warrant, that warrant is valid until served. We often take cases which involve an arrest warrant served years, or decades, after its issuance.
This principle also applies to bench warrants, which are similar to arrest warrants in many respects. If Lisa misses a deadline for submitting a traffic school completion certificate, the judge usually issues a bench warrant. The next time she rolls through a stop sign or tries to renew her drivers’ license, she’ll go directly to jail without passing Go or collecting $200.
Arrest warrants, like search warrants, must be based on probable cause. Usually, the evidence obtained executing a search warrant serves as probable cause for the arrest warrant. If the search warrant was based on unreliable information, any proof officers obtain is fruit from a poisonous tree and therefore inadmissible.
Establishing Murder in Court
Murder is the most severe kind of homicide in Georgia. The mental state separates murder from lesser forms of homicide, such as involuntary manslaughter.
Intent
Murder is a specific intent crime. At trial, the state must prove the defendant intended the conduct (usually striking the victim) as well as the result (killing the victim).
Voluntary intoxication normally isn’t a defense to a criminal offense. But it is a defense to a specific intent offense. Alcohol-soaked brains cannot form the intent to hit and kill. This defense could also hold up in court if the defendant was fatigued at the time (e.g. returning from a long shift at work). Fatigue impairs judgment, just like alcohol impairs judgment.
Depraved Disregard
DD may be the most difficult murder mental state to prove. A drive-by shooting is the classic depraved disregard example. The defendant shows depraved disregard for human life if s/he pulled the trigger, and s/he knew the dwelling or other building was occupied.
Usually, a driver or another vehicle occupant rolls over on the shooter in exchange for leniency. We outlined the issues with unreliable paid informer testimony above. As for the second element, most drive-by shootings occur at night, when many homes and buildings are unoccupied. Therefore, the state must usually prove the defendant saw a light was on and also saw people moving around inside.
Felony Murder
In contrast, felony murder is usually the easiest form of intent to prove, making it the go-to allegation for Cobb County prosecutors.
In Georgia, the felony murder rule applies if someone was killed during a violent felony, usually Arson, Burglary, Kidnapping, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated assault, and Felony fleeing, and that death was a probable and natural consequence of the criminal conduct. The penalty for felony murder is LWOP (life without parole) or execution.
Technically, anyone involved in the felony, including the lookout in a bank robbery, could be charged with felony murder under the right circumstances.
The foreseeability requirement often saves defendants charged with felony murder. If Adam tells Lisa he’s using a toy gun to intimidate Frank and he uses a real gun instead, prosecutors may be unable to establish the foreseeability element.
Murder charges often don’t hold up in court. For a free consultation with an experienced Marietta criminal defense lawyer, contact The Phillips Law Firm, LLC. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.
