Culpepper v. State
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of and sentenced for the malice murder, aggravated assault, and armed robbery of the victim, as well as possession of a knife during the commission of an armed robbery. Defendant appealed his convictions, contending that the aggravated assault and armed robbery convictions merged into the malice murder conviction and the sentences imposed for aggravated assault and armed robbery should be vacated. The court agreed that the aggravated assault merged into the malice murder conviction and vacated the sentence imposed for aggravated assault. However, using the "required evidence" test of Drinkard v. Walker, the court held that armed robbery did not merge into malice murder because malice murder had an element that must be proven that armed robbery did not, and armed robbery had an element that malice murder did not. Therefore, defendant's conviction and sentence for armed robbery was affirmed.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.