BENHAM, Justice.
Appellant Alton Tywon Glenn was convicted of and sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment for malice murder and feticide following the death of Misty Jane Johnson who, when she was killed, was carrying a 16-week-old fetus.
The victim's body, with her clothing severely burned, was found in a dumpster at a shopping mall in Carrollton, Georgia, at about 4:00 p.m. on December 4, 2001. A plastic bag encased her head and was secured by a rope around her neck. The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy testified that the victim had suffered several crescent-shaped lacerations on her head that could have been inflicted by a claw hammer found in a search of appellant's apartment. The expert found the victim's cause of death to be asphyxia caused by manual strangulation, with blunt-force trauma to the head a contributing factor. The pathologist determined the fetus found within Ms. Johnson to have a gestational age of four months. A representative of the manufacturer of the rope found around the victim's neck testified that appellant's employer was one of two Georgia companies who had purchased that type of rope from the manufacturer, and appellant's work supervisor testified that appellant had access to the employer's supply of rope. A forensic DNA analyst testified that blood found on the headboard of appellant's bed, on the boots he was wearing when he was arrested, and on a napkin recovered from the truck of his car matched the DNA profile of the victim. Testing on matter found in the victim's vaginal area matched the DNA profiles of both appellant and the victim.
The victim's roommate and long-time friend testified that the victim had told her that she was involved in a sexual relationship with appellant, that appellant was the father of the child she was carrying, and that she and appellant were "weighing their options" with regard to terminating the pregnancy, but the victim could not go through with a termination since she had felt the fetus move in utero. The roommate testified that the victim told her she was expecting a phone call from appellant after he finished work at 1:00 a.m. on December 4 and that he was going to drive by and pick her up. The roommate testified that she answered the phone at 1:19 a.m., that she recognized appellant's voice as the caller, and that the victim took the call and left the apartment several minutes later. At 10:00 a.m. on December 4, appellant called the witness and said he had not seen the victim.
1. The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty of malice murder and feticide. OCGA §§ 16-5-1(a); 16-5-80(b); Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. Based on a law enforcement officer's affidavit that contained custodial statements made by appellant, a magistrate issued ten search warrants covering appellant's residence, two of appellant's cars, the headboard of his bed on which bloodstains had been seen during the warranted search of appellant's apartment, his body (to obtain blood samples), the clothing he was wearing when he was arrested, his jail cell, his computer, and telephone records.
(a) As it did before the trial court at the hearing on appellant's motion for new trial, the State argues that the trial court did not err in its disposition of the motion to suppress because the motion was insufficient
Appellant's motion to suppress claimed the search warrants were invalid because, among other grounds, the affidavit offered in support of the warrant applications lacked sufficient reliability because it contained illegally-obtained evidence
(b) As stated earlier, upon the State's concession that appellant's custodial statements could not be considered in determining whether there was probable cause to issue the search warrants, the issue before the trial court was whether the remaining contents of the affidavit supported the issuing magistrate's determination that "there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place." State v. Palmer, 285 Ga. 75, 77, 673 S.E.2d 237 (2009). In his affidavit, the detective related the discovery of the victim's body and of her pregnancy, and the statements of her friend and roommate concerning the victim's relationship with appellant, her pregnancy and identification of appellant as the father who was not pleased about the pregnancy, the victim's plans that appellant would pick her up the night before her body was found and she would visit with appellant, the victim's receipt of a phone call from a man the roommate assumed was appellant, the victim's departure from the apartment shortly thereafter, the roommate's past experience of having called appellant's apartment and speaking with the victim, and appellant's repeated phone calls to the roommate the following day in which he denied having been with the victim and having had a physical relationship with her. The application for the search warrant for one of appellant's cars included the fact that the vehicle was registered to appellant at his known address. The applications for search warrants to search appellant's apartment, including his bed's headboard, and the car for which registration information was given in the detective's affidavit contained sufficient information from which the judicial officer could determine there was a "fair probability" that evidence of a crime would be found at those sites as they were likely methods of transporting the victim and the likely destination of appellant and the victim.
(c) Since no evidence gathered in the search of appellant's computer or his jail cell was tendered and admitted against the defendant, even if the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress with regard to these two search warrants, the error was harmless. Huff v. State, 258 Ga. 108(2)(c),
(d) An agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation testified that an antifreeze container smelling of gasoline was found in the warranted search of a car registered in appellant's name and located in the yard of the home of appellant's parents. The affidavit executed as part of the application for a warrant to search the car set out the facts surrounding the crime (see Division 2(b), supra), that the victim's body had been transported from the place where she was killed to the site where her body was found, and that the object of the warrant was one of two vehicles registered to appellant that appellant likely used to move the body. The duty of an appellate court is to determine if there was a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed to issue the search warrant. State v. Palmer, supra, 285 Ga. at 78, 673 S.E.2d 237. Doubtful cases should be resolved in favor of upholding the determination that issuance of a warrant was proper (Sullivan v. State, 284 Ga. 358(2), 667 S.E.2d 32 (2008)), reflecting "both a desire to encourage use of the warrant process by police officers and a recognition that once a warrant has been obtained, intrusion upon interests protected by the Fourth Amendment is less severe than otherwise may be the case." Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 237, n. 10, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). Employing those standards, we conclude the trial court did not err when it concluded that the reconstituted affidavit supported the issuance of the search warrant.
3. Appellant also takes issue with the trial court's denial of his motion in limine in which he sought to preclude the State from presenting through the testimony of the victim's friend and roommate the victim's hearsay statement about the paternity of the fetus the victim was carrying when she was killed. The trial court allowed the hearsay statement under the "necessity" exception to the rule against the admission of hearsay. OCGA § 24-3-1(b).
Watson v. State, 278 Ga. 763(2)(a), 604 S.E.2d 804 (2004). Acknowledging that the victim/declarant was not available to testify at trial and that the State presented evidence of the reliability of the hearsay, appellant argues that the hearsay statement regarding the paternity of the fetus the victim was carrying was not "more probative of the material fact than other evidence" since the issue of paternity could have been established by means of a paternity test.
In discussing newspaper reports of the paternity test on the morning of the second day of trial, defense counsel stated that the fact of the test and its result "should be something that's not even made mention of to the jury" because the test result would not be admissible since the State could not comply with the statutory requirement that the result of a scientific test be shared with defense counsel "no later than ten days prior to trial...." OCGA § 17-16-4(a)(4). Assuming for the sake of argument that it was error to admit the contested hearsay testimony, that error would not constitute reversible
Judgment affirmed.
All the Justices concur.