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Walkerv.State

CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
Docket No.S13A0861
DecidedOctober 7, 2013
Reporter293 Ga. 709; 749 S.E.2d 663; 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 3073; 2013 WL 5508541; 2013 Ga. LEXIS 785
JudgesSupreme Court of Georgia
Tags
CriminalCriminal LawCriminal ProcedureMurder & MayhemJury InstructionsSufficiency of the EvidenceMergerReversalRemandVacaturTales From the Crypt
Case Summary

Macques Antonio Walker was convicted after he backed his car over Evangelina Hernandez-Contreras, dragged her along the road, ran over her again, and fled. He was also convicted of aggravated assault against Roberto Contreras, homicide by vehicle based on reckless driving, homicide by vehicle based on failure to stop and render aid, failure to stop and render aid, and driving without proof of insurance. The Georgia Supreme Court held that the felony-murder and reckless-driving homicide verdicts were mutually exclusive because the indictment, instructions, and closing argument did not separate criminal-intent conduct from criminal-negligence conduct involving the same victim. The court therefore reversed the felony-murder conviction, set aside both homicide verdicts, and remanded for a possible new trial on the mutually exclusive counts. It also held that the State failed to prove that Walker’s failure to render aid caused Hernandez-Contreras’s death, barring retrial on that homicide count. The separate failure-to-stop conviction did not merge and could be imposed on remand. The Court rejected Walker’s aggravated-assault instructional challenge as harmless and affirmed the aggravated-assault and insurance convictions. The judgment was affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.

Opinion

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