Stewart v. Georgia
Annotate this CaseJames Stewart was convicted by jury of felony murder and aggravated assault in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Wendy Johnson. Stewart contended on appeal that the trial court committed plain error in giving an improper sequential verdict form to the jury and that his counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the verdict form. In addition, Stewart contended his sentence for aggravated assault (life without parole) was illegal. The Georgia Supreme Court found that because the crime charged in Count 3, aggravated assault by shooting Johnson with a gun, was the predicate felony for the charge of felony murder in Count 2, the aggravated assault conviction merged with the felony murder conviction for sentencing purposes. The trial court therefore erred in sentencing Stewart on Count 3, and the judgment was vacated in part to correct the merger error.
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