Supreme Court of Georgia
Jones v. the State.
May 6, 2019827 S.E.2d 879
Summary
The court affirmed Jones's convictions for two counts of malice murder, rejecting challenges to the admission and exclusion of testimony and other evidence, the denial of a mistrial, and the effectiveness of trial counsel. It held that the challenged hearsay statement was made in furtherance of a conspiracy's concealment phase, any assumed evidentiary errors were harmless, the mistrial was not necessary to preserve a fair trial, and Jones failed to establish deficient performance and prejudice under the governing ineffective-assistance standard.