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Serritt v. State5/21/2003
Charles Bradley Serritt appeals his convictions of guilty but mentally ill, contending that the State presented insufficient evidence to support the verdict and that he should have been acquitted by reason of insanity. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
On appeal, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to support the verdict; indeed, the evidence is construed in favor of the verdict. Serritt no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence. Moreover, an appellate court determines evidence sufficiency and does not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility. Grant v. State, 195 Ga. App. 463, 464 (1) (393 SE2d 737) (1990). Determining the credibility of witnesses and weighing the evidence are functions within the province of the jury. Turner v. State, 206 Ga. App. 683, 684 (426 SE2d 168) (1992). The matter of whether Serritt was insane or mentally ill or not when he committed the offenses for which he was charged was for determination by the jury under the facts and circumstances proved. Livingston v. State, 193 Ga. App. 502 (2) (388 SE2d 406) (1989). "Because the jury resolves issues of credibility, including defendant's explanation, as well as conflicts in the evidence, once the determination has been made, an appellate court cannot substitute its judgment for that of the jury." Id.
The State indicted Serritt on ten counts: attempting to enter an auto; four counts of entering an auto; two counts of burglary; one count of financial transaction card theft; and two counts of theft by taking. Several church employees testified that Serritt attempted to break the window of a car in their parking lot with a rubber mallet, then used the mallet handle to pry open the window of a truck and got inside. When one of the witnesses began to walk toward the truck, Serritt got out and began walking away. All of the witnesses agreed that Serritt did not seem to care if he got caught, that he seemed to be "in his own world" as if nothing mattered anymore.
The director of treatment services at a north Georgia mental health center testified that she was home in bed sick one afternoon when she looked up and saw Serritt standing in her bedroom with a beer in his hand. She put her glasses on and asked him what he was doing; when he did not respond, she jumped out of bed and told him to move down the hall, down the stairs, and out of the house. He obeyed, and when they got to the living room, the witness saw that Serritt had kicked in the screen on the door and crawled through. She told him to unlatch the door and leave, and he did, driving away in her Lincoln Town Car. The witness discovered that Serritt had stolen her wallet with her credit cards, a picture of herself, and a box of coins.
The witness, who was qualified as an expert due to her extensive clinical experience with the mentally ill, testified that Serritt appeared to be impaired from drinking alcohol but did not appear to be delusional. Delusional people, she said, do not respond to immediate direction and do not possess the capability to go through a house in a short time and look through things in a methodical, well-thought-out way as Serritt had. She testified that he had a blunted affect, consistent with substance abuse, depression, or psychiatric medication, but evinced no symptoms of psychosis. She determined later that he had been admitted to two programs she had supervised, a detoxification and crisis stabilization program and a partial hospitalization program, although she did not remember him and had not treated him individually.
A Chattanooga patrol officer testified that he was dispatched to an accident at a hotel parking deck, where he found Serritt in the seat of a Lincoln T
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