A man is appealing the murder conviction and life prison sentence he received in Bartow County for stabbing a 70-year-old man to death at the Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday.
In February 2012, a number of people lived in a trailer in Cartersville located behind a flea market on Joe Frank Harris Parkway. Among those living in the trailer were Herbert Eberhardt Drews, James David “Lucky” Ayers, and Jamie Gatlin. Over time, various people moved in and moved out. Drews eventually left the trailer and moved into a room at Crown Inn on North Tennessee Street with Derinda Hope Rader. The couple had left after Rader got into a physical altercation with another woman who also stayed at the trailer. After the couple left, among those who moved in was Troyce Warren. Drews did not like Warren and had not allowed him to live at the trailer while he was still there.
The night of February 5th 2012, Drews was drinking at Rader’s motel room when he decided to go over to the trailer and pick up his dog and some other belongings. He called a friend who picked up Drews and Rader and took them to the trailer. As they approached, Drews saw an addition had been built onto the trailer, and he became angry when he learned that Warren was living there, after Ayers had agreed Warren would not be permitted to stay there. According to testimony, one of the women living there heard the front door of the trailer open, then heard men arguing. She came out of her room to investigate and saw Drews standing in the door to Ayers’ room. The two men were arguing about the dog. Warren later testified that Drews ripped off the door to his room and stood there with a knife in his hand and blood dripping down. Drews then said, “Lucky’s dead, and it’s all y’all’s f—— fault.” Ayers was found in his room, bleeding but still alive. Meanwhile, Drews assaulted Warren, one of the women called 911, and the two were still fighting when police arrived. Warren had stab wounds to his face and leg. Ayers suffered nine stab wounds and died less than a week later after his family removed him from life support. Drews later testified at trial but denied ever going to Ayers’ room. He said Warren attacked him when he arrived that day at the trailer.
In August 2013, Warren’s estranged wife met with Deputy Lisa Fuller of Bartow County. Deputy Fuller recorded the meeting with her dashboard camera. Warren’s wife, Molly Warren, told Fuller that she had recorded a cell phone conversation with a woman she identified as Tina James. She played the phone conversation for the deputy but it was mostly inaudible. The gist of the phone conversation and Deputy Fuller’s interview of Warren’s wife was that Tina James told the wife that Warren and another person had killed Ayers for money and tried to frame someone else for the murder. Deputy Fuller filed a supplemental report of her meeting with Warren’s wife and turned over the dashboard recording to the evidence custodian of the Bartow County Sheriff’s office. While the district attorney’s office became aware of the supplemental report and shared it with the defense 10 days before the November 2013 trial, the district attorney’s office did not retrieve the dashboard recording from the sheriff’s office and did not give a copy of it to the defense.
Following the trial, the jury found Drews guilty of the malice murder and felony murder of Ayers, the aggravated assault and aggravated battery of Ayers, and the aggravated assault and aggravated battery of Warren. Drews was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison, and he now appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Drews’ attorney for his appeal enumerates five errors that were committed during his trial. Among them: His trial attorney provided “ineffective assistance of counsel” in violation of his constitutional rights for failing to investigate evidence consistent with the defense’s theory that Troyce Warren committed the murder. In another error that requires reversal of the trial court’s order, the State violated Drews’ due process rights by withholding the patrol car video recording that contained important evidence which pointed to Drews’ innocence. Drews’ attorney also claims the trial court abused its discretion when it refused to allow his trial attorney to introduce evidence of Troyce Warren’s previous diagnosis of having homicidal ideations. Among other arguments, the attorney argues the evidence was insufficient to support Drews’ murder convictions. “For these reasons, Drews requests that the trial court’s order be reversed and that he be granted a new trial,” his attorney states in briefs.
The State, represented by the District Attorney’s and Attorney General’s offices, argues that Drews’ trial attorney provided constitutionally effective assistance of counsel, and the State did not violate his due process rights or withhold evidence that would have proven his innocence. The statement that was recorded on an officer’s patrol car “was made by an unidentified female with no personal knowledge of the case who was referencing a recorded telephone call between two other people – Molly Warren and a person identified by Molly Warren as Tina James – a conversation that did not contain the statement this unidentified person stated to police,” the State argues in briefs. “There is no person in the trial of this case, or unearthed in the preparation for the motion for new trial, who ever heard Troyce Warren” or anyone else brag about killing Ayers for money. Molly Warren’s husband was in love with another woman, which upset her, “and the recording attempted to implicate Molly Warren’s husband, Troyce Warren, and the other woman.” The recording would not be admissible under Georgia law, the State contends. The trial court properly exercised its discretion in refusing to allow Drews’ attorney to introduce evidence of Warrant’s previous diagnosis of homicidal ideations. Finally, the evidence is constitutionally sufficient to support Drews’ convictions, the State contends. However, the State agrees with the defense that Drews’ second malice murder conviction and two felony convictions should have been tossed for sentencing purposes, and it asks the high court to vacate them.