Georgia Supreme Court will hear case of man convicted of murdering an unarmed security officer
Atlanta GA April 20 2020
DOYLE V. THE STATE: An Atlanta man appealed his murder conviction and life-without-parole prison sentence for his role in the shooting death of an unarmed security guard.
In December 2010, Lyndon “Pookie” Tucker worked nights as a security guard for Midtown Towing, located on Ridge Avenue in Atlanta. At about 8 p.m. on Dec. 17, Tucker’s girlfriend dropped him off at work, where he checked cars in and out of the tow yard from a small guard shack. Later that night, his girlfriend went to a party at a nearby former auto shop that had been converted into a makeshift nightclub called “The Yard.” During the party, a fight broke out between two groups of young men – one led by Pontius “Poochie” Thomas, and the other by Quantavius “Tay” Houston. The fight was over a girl with whom both men had a child. “Poochie” was mad at “Tay” after learning that “Tay” and the girl had been going out while “Poochie” was in jail. “Poochie” was the cousin of “Pookie’s” girlfriend.
In December 2010, Keith Richardson was addicted to crack cocaine. He got his drugs from “Fat” Lewis Parks, who lived in the Oakland City neighborhood of Atlanta. Richardson drove a blue Ford Explorer and would give Parks rides whenever he needed them in exchange for cash or drugs. Late the night of Dec. 17, 2010, Richardson received a call from Parks, who said he needed a ride to a club near Turner Field. Parks had heard about the fight at The Yard.
When Richardson arrived at Parks’ home, Parks, Matthew Doyle, and a third man, a relative of Parks’, got into Richardson’s Explorer. When they arrived at the club where the fighting had occurred, the four sat outside for about 20 minutes. Richardson later testified that his passengers discussed “hurting someone” and “getting payback.”
Parks directed Richardson to drive them to Midtown Towing on Ridge Avenue. After stopping the car, Richardson said “Fat” “racked his gun,” and Doyle got out of the Explorer and started shooting at a building. After the first shots were fired, a witness who lived nearby saw a blue Ford “truck” with one man standing outside the vehicle and another hanging outside the passenger window making motions with his arms as if he were shooting.
Richardson testified he tried to drive away as soon as he heard gunshots, but Parks told him to slow down so Doyle could get back in the car. Eventually, Richardson took the three men back to Parks’ home.
After hearing the gunshots, Lyndon “Pookie” Tucker’s co-worker stepped outside the building near Tucker’s guard shack and found him lying on the ground, saying he’d been shot. She called 911, but Tucker later died from eight gunshot wounds. According to a firearms expert, he had been shot by a high-velocity AK-47 type of rifle. During the trial, Kerry “Kim” Henderson testified, but she claimed she could not recall the details of a conversation she had had the day after shooting with the lead detective on the case. The detective testified at trial that Henderson had contacted him and told him that Doyle and Parks had told her they had shot “Pookie” as some form of retribution related to the fight at The Yard, mistakenly believing that “Pookie” was the brother of “Poochie.”
In July 2011, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Doyle and Parks on charges of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and weapons charges. They were jointly tried in June 2013 and both were found guilty on all charges. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld Parks’s convictions in 2017. Doyle, who was sentenced to life without parole plus 10 years for the weapons charges, appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Doyle’s attorney argued five errors were made during trial, and all his convictions should be vacated. Among the errors, “The trial court plainly erred in failing to charge the jury that accomplice testimony must be independently corroborated,” the attorney argued in briefs. Under Georgia law, the testimony of a single witness is generally sufficient to establish a fact. “However, in certain cases, including … felony cases where the only witness is an accomplice, the testimony of a single witness shall not be sufficient,” Georgia Code § 24-14-8 states. “Nevertheless, corroborating circumstances may dispense with the necessity for the testimony of a second witness.”
Doyle’s trial attorney raised the issue of corroboration in his motion requesting a directed verdict in Doyle’s favor, in which he argued there was nothing to connect Doyle with the case “other than Keith Richardson’s testimony, and I don’t think that’s sufficient.” The trial court denied the motion, finding there was sufficient corroboration of Richardson’s testimony. Furthermore, the trial court found that “Richardson was not an accomplice.” Yet Richardson drove the defendants to the scene of the crime after hearing them discuss, “hurting somebody,’” the attorney argued.
Richardson drove them away from the scene after hearing gunshots; he failed to report the shooting for several months, and he told police he knew nothing about the crime. “Such evidence is clearly the type of evidence our courts view as supporting the finding that one is an accomplice,” Doyle’s attorney argued. The omission of the instruction to the jury about corroboration was harmful “because the corroborating evidence against Doyle was less than the ‘slight’ evidence required to support a conviction.”
The trial court also erred in excluding evidence that the defense had offered to contradict Richard’s self-serving testimony that he was not violent, “never owned a gun,” and had been convicted of nothing except drugs and burglary. Among other errors, the trial court plainly erred in allowing the state to elicit extensive, damaging and inadmissible hearsay from the lead detective. Also, Doyle’s former attorney for his appeal rendered ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of Doyle’s constitutional rights. And the evidence was insufficient to convict Doyle of any crime beyond a reasonable doubt, Doyle’s attorney argued.
The State, represented by the District Attorney’s and Attorney General’s offices, argued that there was no plain error in the trial court’s jury charge on accomplice corroboration. Doyle has not shown plain error from the trial court’s charge “as the lack of the charge of accomplice corroboration was not erroneous, nor did it affect the outcome of the proceedings.”
In upholding Parks’s convictions and sentences, the Georgia Supreme Court found that, “There was evidence independent of Richardson’s testimony connecting [Parks] to the crime.” The Court found that, “Henderson reported to police that [Parks] and Doyle admitted to her that they had killed the victim.” The trial court also properly excluded evidence of Richardson’s prior conviction that was more than 10 years old. Under Georgia statutory law, evidence of a conviction more than 10 years old is not be admissible unless the proponent gives the adverse party sufficient advance written notice, and Doyle has not shown that notice was given, the State argued.
Even if the trial court should have admitted Richardson’s prior conviction, “Any error in failing to do so is harmless in light of the substantial evidence against appellant [i.e. Doyle],” the State contended, “including the evidence that Appellant and co-defendant Parks had admitted to shooting the victim when speaking with witness Kerry Henderson.” There also was no plain error in the testimony of the lead detective.
Finally, no remand is required for an evidentiary hearing on Doyle’s claim that he received ineffective assistance of counsel from his appeals attorney. As the claim is being raised for the first time on appeal, it is “properly the subject of a habeas corpus proceeding rather than a remand,” the State argued.
Next week, for the first time in history, the Supreme Court of Georgia will hold oral arguments via videoconferencing. Court will be held Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The sessions, beginning Monday at 10 a.m., will be live-streamed on the court’s website, as usual. The difference is that although viewers will see all justices, they won’t be sitting together on the bench with lawyers arguing from a podium in front of them.
