Woods v. State

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official text of the opinion.

In the Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided: August 26, 2025

S25A0508. WOODS v. THE STATE.

ELLINGTON, Justice.

A Bibb County jury found Christopher Leon Woods guilty of

murder and other crimes in connection with the July 2021 shooting

death of Freddie Lee Battle. 1 Woods contends that his trial counsel

was ineffective for failing to properly advise him of his right to

testify in his defense at trial. For the reasons explained below, we

1 The crimes occurred on July 30, 2021. On October 8, 2021, a Bibb
County grand jury indicted Woods for the crimes of malice murder (Count 1);
felony murder predicated on the offense of possession of a firearm by a
convicted felon (Count 2); and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
(Count 3). During a jury trial that began on April 18, 2023, the jury found
Woods guilty on all counts. The trial court sentenced Woods to life in prison on
Count 1, merged Count 3 into Count 2, and then vacated Count 2. (We express
no opinion as to whether Count 3 was properly merged and note that this Court
generally declines to exercise its discretion to correct any merger errors that
benefit the defendant when the State has not raised the error in a cross-appeal.
See Dixon v. State, 302 Ga. 691, 696-97. Woods filed a timely motion for new
trial on May 22, 2023, which he twice amended. After a hearing held on August
13, 2024, the trial court denied the amended motion for new trial on August
26, 2024. Woods filed a timely notice of appeal on September 18, 2024. The case
was thereafter docketed in this Court to the April 2025 term and submitted for
a decision on the briefs.
see no merit to this contention and affirm.

1. The evidence presented at trial showed the following. On

July 30, 2021, Woods called 911 and reported that he had shot his

roommate and friend, Battle. A sergeant with the Bibb County

Sheriff’s Office, who was wearing a bodycam at the time, responded

to Woods’s Bibb County home. When the sergeant arrived, he saw a

man, whom he later identified as Woods, standing in the front yard,

drinking liquor, and smoking a cigarette. The sergeant drew his

service weapon and ordered Woods to lie on the ground. Woods

complied, after he finished a shot of liquor.

As the sergeant handcuffed Woods, Woods offered, unsolicited,

that he had been drinking and that he “killed the motherf**ker.”

The sergeant asked Woods if he had any weapons on him, and Woods

admitted that he had knives. After disarming Woods, the sergeant

took him to the patrol car. On the way to the patrol car, Woods said

that he had been wanting to “kill his a** for two years.” When the

paramedics arrived, Woods told them: “He’s laying on the floor

dead.” The sergeant responded, “He’s dead?” Woods stated: “Yeah,

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he’s dead, I shot him, I killed him, and I wanted to kill him too.”

After he sat in the patrol car, Woods made additional

unprompted statements. He said that he and Battle had argued, he

was fed up with Battle “putting his hands on him,” Battle had made

threats to him in the past, and he could not take it anymore. The

State played the sergeant’s body camera video of the encounter for

the jury.

On cross-examination, and after having his memory refreshed

with parts of his body camera video, the sergeant also testified that

Woods told him that he and Battle liked to drink and hunt raccoons

together; that, although they were friends and roommates, they

argued often; that Battle had knocked Woods down several times on

the evening of the shooting; that Battle had put his finger in Woods’

face; and that Battle had hit Woods in the back of the head.

However, the sergeant saw no physical evidence, such as torn

clothing or injury to Woods’s body, which led him to believe that

Battle had fought with or struck Woods that night.

The sergeant testified that he found Battle’s body on the living

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room floor. A crime scene investigator with the Bibb County Sheriff’s

Office took photos of and collected evidence from Woods’s residence.

The photographs, which were published to the jury, showed Battle’s

body lying face-down on the living room floor in front of a chair.

Photographs also showed two holes in Battle’s back and blood

spatter on the carpet and ceiling. Photographs taken in the bedroom

showed a hunting rifle lying on the bed next to a spent shell casing.

The investigator testified that, as she took photographs of Battle’s

body, she saw no weapons lying close to his body.

The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy of Battle’s

body testified that he determined from Battle’s wounds that the

bullets had traveled from back to front, indicating that Battle was

shot in the back. He saw no soot or stippling on the entry wounds,

which indicated the gun was likely fired from three or more feet from

Battle’s back. He concluded that Battle’s cause of death was “a

gunshot wound of the torso,” and the manner of death was homicide.

Finally, on the issue of Woods’s status as a convicted felon, the State

submitted a certified copy of Woods’s 1994 felony conviction for

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aggravated assault with intent to rape.

2. Woods contends that his trial counsel’s “advice against

testifying” was constitutionally deficient, given the trial court’s

initial decision not to give counsel’s requested charge on voluntary

manslaughter. For the following reasons, we disagree.

To prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a

defendant generally must show that counsel’s performance was

constitutionally deficient and that the deficient performance

resulted in prejudice to the defendant. See Strickland v.

Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687–695 (1984); Wesley v. State, 286 Ga.

355, 356 (2010). To satisfy the deficiency prong, a defendant must

demonstrate that his attorney “performed at trial in an objectively

unreasonable way considering all the circumstances and in the light

of prevailing professional norms.” Romer v. State, 293 Ga. 339, 344

(2013) (citation omitted). See also Strickland, 466 U. S. at 687–688.

This requires a defendant to overcome the strong presumption that

trial counsel’s performance “fell within a wide range of reasonable

professional conduct.” See Marshall v. State, 297 Ga. 445, 448

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(citation and punctuation omitted). “If an appellant fails to meet his

or her burden of proving either prong of the Strickland test, the

reviewing court does not have to examine the other prong.”

Lawrence v. State, 286 Ga. 533, 533–534 (2010).

Counsel’s theory of defense was that Woods was provoked by

Battle. Prior to trial, defense counsel filed requests to charge that

included a charge on voluntary manslaughter. At the end of the first

day of testimony, during a discussion of the requests to charge, the

State objected to the voluntary manslaughter charge. Defense

counsel responded, arguing:

Just based on the evidence that we’ve already received,
they had an argument that escalated into a much more
intense situation. Evidence is on the night in question
that Mr. Battle had hit Mr. Woods in the head, had
pushed him down several times, had been threatening
him. I think those facts have been brought out in the
evidence, and those could all amount to more than just
words provocation in a situation like this; pointing his
finger in his face, these are the kinds of things that can
rise to the level of provocation for a voluntary instruction.

The judge said he doubted a voluntary manslaughter charge was

applicable to the case, but that he would consider it. The following

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day, the judge ruled that there was no basis for the voluntary

manslaughter charge and that it would not be included in the final

charge. Defense counsel objected to the trial court’s ruling.

After the State rested, trial counsel asked for additional time

to speak to her client in light of the court’s ruling on the issue of the

voluntary manslaughter charge. After Woods conferred with his

counsel, the trial court advised Woods of his rights and asked Woods

whether he wanted to testify. Woods said: “No, sir, no testifying.”

The defense then rested without calling any witnesses. Shortly

thereafter, the judge announced that he had reviewed more case law

and that he believed the voluntary manslaughter charge was

warranted after all. The judge later charged the jury on voluntary

manslaughter. During closing arguments, trial counsel presented

Woods’s defense as originally intended, emphasizing that Battle had

provoked Woods and that Woods was intoxicated when he shot

Battle.

At the motion for new trial hearing, trial counsel testified that

she could not “think of a particular piece of evidence that [she] was

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not able to get in that [she] tried to.” Counsel was not asked whether

she advised Woods to remain silent or to testify in his defense.

Further, Woods did not testify at the motion for new trial hearing.

Thus, the record is silent as to whether counsel advised Woods to

testify or not to testify. Additionally, there is nothing in the trial

transcript suggesting that defense counsel advised Woods not to

testify. The transcript shows only that Woods and defense counsel

had an off-the-record discussion concerning his decision to testify.

Moreover, the judge inquired, on the record, whether Woods

“personally” wanted to testify. The judge reminded Woods that the

decision was his alone, and not his attorney’s. Woods ultimately

decided: “No, sir, no testifying.”

Woods’s claim of ineffective counsel fails on the first part of the

Strickland test because he has not shown that his counsel advised

him not to testify, let alone that counsel did so unreasonably. The

record is silent as to what advice, if any, counsel gave Woods on that

topic. The trial transcript shows only that Woods and counsel had

an off-the-record discussion about Woods’s decision to testify, after

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which the judge asked Woods whether he “personally” wanted to

testify, and Woods declined. At the hearing on Woods’s motion for

new trial, Woods did not testify, and although trial counsel did, she

was not asked about any advice she gave Woods about whether to

take the stand. In the absence of evidence that counsel advised

Woods not to testify – let alone evidence that the advice was

unreasonable – Woods cannot overcome the strong presumption that

counsel’s performance fell within the broad range of reasonable

professional conduct. And even if counsel had advised Woods not to

testify, it is generally a reasonable trial strategy to do so, and we see

nothing here that suggests that such advice would have been

unreasonable under the circumstances of this case. See Newman v.

State, 309 Ga. 171, 175-176 (2020) (Because the defendant “did not

ask his trial counsel any questions at the motion for new trial

hearing about the reasons why [the defendant] decided to testify, we

presume that any reason relating to trial counsel’s advice to [the

defendant] about testifying was strategic and would not amount to

ineffective assistance. (citations omitted)). See also Morgan v. State,

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321 Ga. 495, 504 (2025) (“Whether to testify in one’s own defense is

a tactical choice to be made by the defendant after consultation with

his lawyer, and trial counsel’s advice to a defendant not to testify is

a strategic decision. It is generally enough for counsel to advise the

defendant about the ‘pros and cons’ of testifying and explain that the

ultimate choice is the defendant’s to make.” (citations and

punctuation omitted)); Washington v. State, 294 Ga. 560, 566 (2014)

(“As we have explained, when trial counsel does not testify at the

motion for new trial hearing about the subject, it is extremely

difficult to overcome the presumption that his conduct was

reasonable.” (citation and punctuation omitted)). For these reasons,

Woods’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel fails.

Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.

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