Demartre Harrisv.The State
After a package-store fight with rival gang members, Demartre Harris messaged a fellow gang member, “Everybody dies.” Days later, two drive-by shootings at a house where the rivals gathered injured two men and killed Marcus Bowden. Ballistics linked .40-caliber casings from both scenes, and Harris had recently posted that he possessed a compatible Springfield pistol. Months later, officers found Harris barricaded with a loaded gun and ammunition when they arrested him. A jury convicted him of felony murder and related offenses. The Supreme Court of Georgia held the circumstantial evidence was sufficient to support the verdicts and upheld admission of the arrest evidence as probative of flight and consciousness of guilt, and the Facebook posts as relevant to firearm possession. Harris also argued counsel was ineffective for not calling a witness who would have identified different SUVs in the shootings; the trial court found her later account inconsistent with what she told police soon after the events. Deferring to that credibility finding, the Court held counsel’s decision was not deficient and affirmed the convictions and denial of a new trial.
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