Georgia v. Cash
Annotate this CaseDefendants Elgerie Mary Cash and Jennifer Michelle Weathington were tried jointly before a jury in October 2013 and found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the fatal shooting of Lennis Jones. Each woman was sentenced to life in prison for malice murder and a consecutive term of five years in prison for the firearm possession. Claiming that Jones accidentally shot himself, Cash and Weathington each filed a motion for new trial, which motions were subsequently amended. Following a joint hearing on the motions in 2014, the superior court entered separate orders granting each defendant a new trial, and then approximately a week later issued a joint amended order granting new trials to the defendants and vacating their convictions and sentences. The superior court did so after finding that the defendantsreceived ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and based upon the general grounds, i.e., that the verdicts were contrary to the principles of justice and equity and decidedly and strongly against the weight of the evidence. The State appealed the grants of new trials to defendants, and the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed. Upon return of the remittiturs, Weathington filed her “Double Jeopardy Plea in Bar,” claiming that the evidence at trial was insufficient, and consequently, the State could not again put her in jeopardy for the same offenses; Cash adopted her daughter’s motion as her own. The superior court sustained the motion, finding defendants had not waived their rights to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence of their guilt of the crimes charged under Jackson v. Virginia, and that the evidence was insufficient under such standard; it expressly directed that a judgment of acquittal be entered as to both defendants on all counts of the charging indictment. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed and remanded: “[e]ven if the evidence did not conclusively establish which of the women actually shot Jones, there was evidence of a common criminal intent, including the women’s presence, companionship, and conduct before and immediately after the fatal shooting. Consequently, the evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find both Cash and Weathington guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes of which they were convicted.”
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