NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and official text of the opinion.
In the Supreme Court of Georgia
Decided: September 17, 2024
S24A0647. JONES v. THE STATE.
ELLINGTON, Justice.
Christopher Lane Jones appeals his convictions for malice
murder and concealing the death of another in connection with the
shooting deaths of Steven James Ward and Kristian Bell. 1 Jones
asserts on appeal that there was insufficient evidence to support his
1 Ward and Bell went missing on or around January 20, 2019, and their
bodies were located on or around February 9, 2019. On May 2, 2019, a Coffee
County grand jury indicted Jones on one count of malice murder (Count 1) and
one count of concealing the death of another (Count 3) in connection with Bell’s
death and one count of malice murder (Count 2) and one count of concealing
the death of another (Count 4) in connection with Ward’s death. Jones was
tried before a jury in September 2021, and the jury found him guilty on all
counts. The trial court sentenced Jones to life in prison without the possibility
of parole on Count 1; life in prison without the possibility of parole on Count 2, to run consecutively to Count 1; ten years in prison on Count 3, to run
consecutively to Count 2; and ten years in prison on Count 4, to run
consecutively to Count 3. Jones’s trial counsel filed a timely motion for new
trial on September 28, 2021, and new counsel filed an “Amended Motion for
New Trial and Reversal of Convictions” on December 19, 2023. Following a
hearing, the trial court denied Jones’s motion for new trial, as amended, on
January 26, 2024. Jones filed a timely notice of appeal, and this case was
docketed to the April 2024 term of this Court.
convictions and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel.
We affirm for the reasons set forth below.
1. In January 2019, Jones was living in a house on Deep Woods
Road in Nicholls, Georgia, with Sarah Spruce, Mikhaela Anderson,
Ward, and Bell. After the residents received an eviction notice
directing them to vacate the Deep Woods Road house by January 20,
2019, they began moving their belongings off the property. Dedrick
Johnson and his friend Joseph Burch helped with the move because
some of the residents of the house, including Jones, planned to move
to Johnson’s property.
Burch testified that one night, he and Johnson drove to
Waycross to retrieve a trailer to haul larger items from the Deep
Woods Road house, while Jones, Ward, and Bell remained behind at
the house. Burch said that when he and Johnson returned to the
house later that night, Jones took them around back and showed
them Ward’s and Bell’s bodies. One body was under the back porch
and the other was under the left side of the house. Jones told Burch
and Johnson that he had killed Ward and Bell. Jones told them that
2
he first shot Ward in the stomach and then shot Bell after she came
out of the house. Burch testified that he had previously seen Jones
with a shotgun and that there also was a Taurus pistol at the Deep
Woods Road house.
Jones then directed Burch and Johnson to move the bodies, and
while Jones walked around nearby, Burch and Johnson cut off the
victims’ clothes, put them in a bag, and dug a hole. Burch testified
that he did what Jones told him to do because he was concerned for
his own safety; he said he “didn’t believe that [he] would make it
out.” Burch and Johnson put Bell’s body in the hole first, and Ward’s
body was placed on top after Jones pulled it out from under the
house by the neck and dragged it over. Burch testified that Jones
had to stomp on Ward’s body to make it fit in the hole. Jones gave
Burch and Johnson a shower curtain to put over the bodies, which
they then covered with dirt. They put bricks over the area to make
it look like a firepit and to hide the hole. The three men then finished
packing up the trailer and went to Johnson’s house. The next day
Burch drove Jones back to the house to get more furniture, and
3
Jones directed Burch to first clean everything off the back porch,
including blood and “brains,” which he did. 2
Other witnesses corroborated much of Burch’s testimony.
Anderson testified that Jones told her he shot and killed Ward and
Bell and “slung” their bodies under the house until Johnson and
Burch returned. Spruce likewise testified that Jones told her he
killed Ward and Bell. Among other things, Jones told Spruce that he
shot Bell in the head, that he shot Ward even though Ward begged
for his life, and that he had to cut off Ward’s head to fit him in the
hole. 3 And a third witness, David Wade Reliford, who knew Jones
only casually, testified that Jones told him he killed Ward and Bell
and had to “clean their brains up” afterward.
When Bell’s family reported Bell as missing and Ward could
not be located, the Coffee County Sheriff’s office opened a missing
2 Burch was charged with two counts of concealing a death and given a plea
offer to serve two and one-half years of incarceration, which he had completed at the time of trial, and to spend ten years on probation in exchange for his truthful
testimony at Jones’s trial. However, Burch did not have a plea deal in place when he first told investigators what had happened to Bell and Ward.
3 No evidence was presented at trial showing that Ward’s head had been
removed from his body.
4
persons investigation. Police searched the Deep Woods Road
property without locating the missing pair, but volunteer searchers
led by Bell’s father later found Ward’s and Bell’s bodies buried under
a fire pit and covered with a shower curtain. Autopsies later showed
that Ward’s body had several gunshot wounds, including to his torso,
and that Bell’s body had two gunshot wounds, including one to the
back of her head. Police also recovered a number of .40-caliber spent
shell casings from the property, which were later matched to a .40-caliber Taurus pistol found inside Johnson’s house. Burch testified,
however, that, before the police conducted that search, he and
Johnson had found the Taurus pistol in a shed where Jones stayed
following the move. Burch and Johnson discovered the pistol after
Jones vacated the premises.4
Jones testified in his own defense at trial and denied killing
4 Jones was eventually located and arrested by U. S. Marshals in
Oceanside, California. Jones was interviewed by Coffee County Sheriff’s
investigators while in California, after he signed a form waiving his rights.
During that interview, Jones did not deny killing Ward and Bell and indicated
that he was scared that if he told his side of the story, he would never see his
son again. This interview was played for the jury.
5
Ward and Bell. He also denied telling Reliford that he had
committed the murders. He said that he did not know that Bell and
Ward were dead until he saw it on Facebook when he was in
California. Nevertheless, on cross-examination, Jones admitted that
he did not like Bell and had problems with Ward, because Ward lied
and blamed Jones “for certain things.”
2. Jones asserts that the State failed to present sufficient
evidence under the standard set forth in Jackson v. Virginia, 443
U.S. 307, 319 (III) (B) (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979), to prove
that Jones committed the crimes of which he was convicted.
On appeal, a criminal defendant is no longer presumed
innocent, and we review whether the evidence presented
at trial, when viewed in the light most favorable to the
jury’s verdicts, enabled the jury to find the defendant
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which
[he] was convicted.
Fitts v. State, 312 Ga. 134, 141 (3) (859 SE2d 79) (2021) (citing
Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319 (III) (B)). “This limited review leaves to the
jury the resolution of conflicts in the evidence, the weight of the
evidence, the credibility of witnesses, and reasonable inferences to
6
be made from basic facts to ultimate facts.” (Citation and
punctuation omitted.) Wilkerson v. State, 317 Ga. 242, 245 (1) (892
SE2d 737) (2023).
Under Georgia law, “[a] person commits the offense of murder
when he unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or
implied, causes the death of another human being.” OCGA § 16-5-1
(a). And “[a] person who, by concealing the death of any other person,
hinders a discovery of whether or not such person was unlawfully
killed is guilty of a felony.” OCGA § 16-10-31.
Jones contends the evidence was insufficient to support his
convictions for these crimes because the State failed to present any
physical evidence connecting Jones with either the Taurus firearm
used in the murders or the shovels that the State contended were
used to conceal Ward’s and Bell’s bodies. However, “the fact that the
State did not produce certain types of evidence does not mean that
the evidence was insufficient.” Grant v. State, 319 Ga. 490, 494 (2)
(a) (904 SE2d 338) (2024). “Although the State is required to prove
its case with competent evidence, there is no requirement that it
7
prove its case with any particular sort of evidence.” Plez v. State, 300
Ga. 505, 506 (1) (796 SE2d 704) (2017).
The evidence at trial showed that Johnson and Burch left Jones
alone with Bell and Ward at the Deep Woods Road house one night
in January 2019. When Johnson and Burch returned to the house
hours later, Jones showed them Ward’s and Bell’s dead bodies and
said that he had shot them. Three other witnesses testified that
Jones later confessed to shooting and killing Ward and Bell. After
the shooting, Jones confessed to Anderson that he had killed the
pair, then “slung” the bodies under the house until Johnson and
Burch returned. Shortly thereafter he confessed to Reliford that he
had killed them and that he had “to clean their brains up,” and
Burch also testified to cleaning up brain matter at Jones’s direction.
After Jones fled to California, he told Spruce that he had killed Ward
even though Ward begged for his life and that he shot Bell in the
head. The autopsies showed that Ward’s body had multiple gunshot
wounds, including to his torso, and Bell’s body had two gunshot
wounds, including one to the back of her head.
8
Each confession was direct evidence of Jones’s guilt, and we
conclude that Jones’s multiple confessions along with the other
corroborating and supporting evidence at trial was more than
sufficient to support his murder convictions. See Baker v. State, 319
Ga. 456, 460 (1) (902 SE2d 645) (2024) (defendant’s confession
corroborated by various evidence, including the circumstances
under which the victims were discovered and evidence of defendant’s
consciousness of guilt was sufficient to support his murder
conviction); Thrift v. State, 310 Ga. 499, 502 (1) (852 SE2d 560)
(2020) (defendant’s confessions to killing victim and disposing of
victim’s body, made to various witnesses, were direct evidence of
guilt and those confessions, along with corroborating evidence, were
sufficient to support his murder conviction).
Regarding the charges of concealing the death of another, the
evidence showed that Jones told Johnson and Burch to dig a hole,
and they put Ward’s and Bell’s bodies in it. The men then filled the
hole with dirt and disguised the area to look like a firepit to conceal
the bodies. Ward’s and Bell’s bodies were later found in the
9
makeshift firepit, under a shower curtain. And although Burch and
Johnson helped to bury Ward’s and Bell’s bodies, the evidence was
sufficient to convict Jones of being a party to the crime of concealing
their deaths. Under OCGA § 16-2-20 (b) (3), a person is a party to a
crime if he “[i]ntentionally aids or abets in the commission of the
crime.” The evidence showed that Jones led Burch and Johnson to
the bodies; directed them to dispose of them; pulled Ward’s body over
to the hole and stomped on it to make it fit; and provided Johnson
and Burch with the shower curtain to put over the bodies.5 See
Nelms v. State, 285 Ga. 718, 720 (1) (681 SE2d 141) (2009) (evidence
sufficient to support both defendants’ convictions for concealing a
death where they both dragged body away from crime scene and
5 Jones further asserts that the witnesses to his confessions were all
“admitted liars” and notes that police found the Taurus pistol and the shovels
they contend were used in the crime at Johnson’s house, and Johnson was
convicted of concealing Bell’s and Ward’s deaths. However, it was up to the
jury to resolve any conflicts in the evidence and determine witness credibility.
See Wilson v. State, __ Ga. __, __ (1) (2024 Ga. LEXIS 168, at *8 (Case No.
S24A0526, Aug. 13, 2024) (jury is to determine witness credibility and to
resolve any evidentiary conflicts and “[b]ecause the jury’s findings were
sufficiently supported by the evidence, we will not disturb those findings.”
(citation and punctuation omitted)).
10
covered it with leaves to hide it).
Accordingly, this enumeration fails.
3. Jones contends that he received ineffective assistance of trial
counsel. Jones asserts, without further elaboration, that his trial
counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel “by, inter alia,
spending inadequate time conferring with him and failing to confer
effectively with him so as to allow Mr. Jones to meaningfully
participate in his own defense; failing to meaningfully review the
evidence with the Defendant prior to trial; failing to adequately
cross-examine witnesses; failing to pursue and present exculpatory
evidence by, inter alia, failing to call witnesses with relevant
testimony favorable to the defense; and by failing to adequately
prepare the Defendant’s case for trial, in addition to other
deficiencies that the evidence may show.” He argues, generally, that
“[b]ut for these deficiencies, trial counsel would have succeeded in
raising reasonable doubt as to Mr. Jones’s guilt, or otherwise
affected or influenced the jury favorably toward Mr. Jones.”
However, Jones made no attempt to carry the substantial
11
burden required of him under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S.
668, 687-695 (III) (104 SCt 2052, 80 LE2d 674) (1984), for
establishing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. To prevail
on a such claim, “a defendant generally must show that counsel’s
performance was deficient, and that the deficient performance
resulted in prejudice to the defendant.” Perkins v. State, 313 Ga. 885,
901 (5) (873 SE2d 185) (2022) (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687-695). To meet the deficiency prong of the Strickland test, Jones was
required to show “that trial counsel performed his duties in an
objectively unreasonable way, considering all the circumstances and
in the light of prevailing professional norms.” Pauldo v. State, 317
Ga. 433, 436 (1) (893 SE2d 633) (2023). “Establishing deficient
performance is no easy showing, as the law recognizes a strong
presumption that counsel performed reasonably, and [Jones bore]
the burden of overcoming this presumption.” (Citation omitted.) Id.
“To satisfy the prejudice prong, a defendant must establish a
reasonable probability that, in the absence of counsel’s deficient
performance, the result of the trial would have been different.”
12
Perkins, 313 Ga. at 901 (5) (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694). “A
reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine
confidence in the outcome.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.)
Sullivan v. State, 308 Ga. 508, 510 (2) (84 SE2d 5) (2020). Therefore,
a defendant’s burden of establishing prejudice under Strickland “is
a heavy one.” Young v. State, 305 Ga. 92, 97 (5) (823 SE2d 774)
(2019).
Here, although Jones makes generalized assertions of his trial
counsel’s alleged failings, he fails to show in what respect his
counsel’s performance was deficient. He provides no record citation,
argument, or legal authority to support any claim of deficient
performance. For example, he fails to explain how a reasonable
probability existed that the outcome of his trial would have been
different, or even how he could have participated more
“meaningfully” in his trial, if his counsel had spent additional time
conferring with him or more “meaningfully” reviewed the evidence
with him before trial. Moreover, Jones identifies no instance where
his trial counsel failed to adequately cross-examine any witness nor
13
does he show any exculpatory evidence his counsel failed to pursue
or present through witness testimony or otherwise, as he proffered
no such omitted evidence at the hearing on his motion for new trial.
And without establishing deficient performance by counsel, Jones
cannot show any prejudice resulting from such performance.
Accordingly, Jones failed to establish his claims of ineffective
assistance of counsel. See, e.g., Pauldo, 317 Ga. at 437 (1) (a). (“It is
well established that a defendant fails to establish prejudice under
Strickland when he merely contends that trial counsel was deficient
for failing to present [witness testimony], without also presenting
evidence at the motion-for-new-trial hearing about what the
[witness] would have testified to at trial.”); Young v. State, 317 Ga.
57, 64 (3) (b) (891 SE2d 827) (2023) (where defendant provided no
citation to the record in support of his claims of trial counsel’s
inadequate preparation and trial performance, including during
counsel’s examination of witnesses, he failed to meet his burden of
showing deficient performance); Allen v. State, 317 Ga. 1, 11 (4) (b)
(890 SE2d 700) (2023) (To make the required affirmative showing of
14
the prejudicial effect of trial counsel’s failure to call a witness,
“[e]ither the uncalled witness must testify or the defendant must
introduce a legally recognized substitute for the uncalled witness’s
testimony.” (citation and punctuation omitted)); Payne v. State, 314
Ga. 322, 334 (3) (g) (877 SE2d 202) (2022) (holding counsel was not
deficient where appellant “offer[ed] no evidence in support of this
claim other than suggesting that additional investigation could have
led to exculpatory evidence”).
Finally, Jones asserts that we should consider the cumulative
effect of his counsel’s alleged deficiencies and grant him a new trial.
See Pritchett v. State, 314 Ga. 767, 787 (4) (879 SE2d 436) (2022).
As we determined above, although Jones attempted to assert
multiple claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, he failed to carry
his burden of showing deficient performance by his trial counsel in
any respect. Accordingly, Jones cannot show cumulative prejudice
in this case sufficient to warrant a new trial. See Scott v. State, 309
Ga. 764, 771 (3) (d) (848 SE2d 448) (2020) (“Assessing cumulative
prejudice is necessary only when multiple errors have been
15
shown.”).
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.
16