PONDER v. STATE (2015)

Following a jury trial, Kenneth Fred Ponder was found guilty of malice murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, and various other offenses in connection with the robbing of Kelvin Golden and Darius Howard and the shooting death of Terry Crawford.¹ On appeal Ponder contends only that the trial court erred by failing to give a curative instruction after sustaining Ponder's objection to certain hearsay testimony. We affirm.

1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, the evidence reveals that, on March 29, 2004, Ponder and Toris Gilyard walked up to a car in which Crawford, Golden, and Howard were sitting. Ponder was carrying a shotgun at the time. Ponder pointed the shotgun at Crawford and screamed, “Give it up!” to the occupants of the vehicle. Crawford exited the vehicle, saying that he and his companions did not have any money. Ponder then shot Crawford in the head, killing him. Ponder pointed the shotgun at Golden and Howard and robbed cash and drugs from them before leaving the scene with Gilyard.

This evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Ponder guilty of all of the crimes of which he was convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

2. Ponder contends that the trial court erred by failing to give an additional curative instruction after sustaining his objection to certain hearsay testimony at trial. However, the record reveals that Ponder did not request a curative instruction or ask for a mistrial after his objection had already been sustained. The trial court therefore did not err in failing to give a curative instruction. See Morrison v. State, 276 Ga. 829, 834(4), 583 S.E.2d 873 (2003) (Where the “trial court sustain[s] [a defendant's] objection to [a] statement, but there is no evidence that [the defendant] ever requested a curative instruction or a mistrial[,] ․ the trial court d[oes] not err in failing to give [a curative instruction] sua sponte”) (footnote omitted).

Judgment affirmed.

MELTON, Justice.

All the Justices concur.