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Andra Easterv.The State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Docket No.A14A0358
DecidedJune 25, 2014
Reporter327 Ga. App. 754, 761 S.E.2d 149
JudgesPresiding Judge Barnes, and Judges Boggs and Branch; Branch authored the opinion
Tags
CriminalCriminal LawCriminal ProcedureDue ProcessJury InstructionsPlain ErrorReversal
Case Summary

A Richmond County jury convicted Andra Easter of burglary and aggravated assault after his former girlfriend shot him inside her home. Easter argued that the aggravated-assault charge and jury instructions allowed conviction on a theory not alleged in the indictment, and that the trial court’s sequential instruction improperly prevented consideration of criminal trespass unless the jury first acquitted him of burglary. The Georgia Court of Appeals agreed that the aggravated-assault charge was constitutionally defective. The indictment alleged use of a crowbar as an object likely to cause serious injury, but the charge also allowed the jury to treat the crowbar as a deadly weapon; the evidence supported that uncharged theory, and the court gave no meaningful limiting instruction. That error created a reasonable probability that the jury convicted Easter in a manner not charged, requiring reversal of the aggravated-assault conviction. The Court rejected the burglary challenge. Read as a whole, the instructions did not require a unanimous acquittal on burglary before the jury could consider criminal trespass, and the verdict showed no reasonable possibility of an uncharged burglary theory. The Court affirmed the burglary judgment and reversed the aggravated-assault judgment.

Opinion

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