The Supreme Court of Georgia has denied the appeal of a man convicted of malice murder and concealing the death of another in 2013 in Franklin County.
Brent James Shubert appealed his convictions in the 2013 death of Bonny Cooner, arguing the Franklin County Grand Jury that indicted him was not a fair cross-section of the community in violation of the Sixth Amendment.
“Shubert has failed to carry his burden because he presents insufficient evidence to determine the racial composition of the grand jury master list,” today’s ruling states. “Racial identification was supplied for only 29 percent of those people on the list. Although Shubert presents analysis of the data he does have, it is simply not possible to prove a disparity between the racial composition of the master jury list and that of the population of Franklin County when the race of 71% of those on the list has not been identified.”
Shubert had been dating Cooner and the two lived together, the ruling states.
The ruling also outlines the following facts of the case that brought it to the Supreme Court of Georgia:
- Shubert was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on March 1, 2013, for malice murder, felony murder predicated on aggravated assault, and concealing the death of another.
- The State filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty on May 29, 2013.
- Shubert filed a motion to quash the indictment on the grounds of an illegal grand jury venire on April 14, 2015. A venire is the panel of prospective jurors from which a jury or grand jury is selected. .
- The State filed its response to the motion to quash on May 7, 2015. A hearing was held on the motion on July 6, 2015, and the trial court denied the motion on July 31, 2015.
- Shubert and the State then reached an agreement in which the State withdrew its notice of intent to seek the death penalty and Shubert waived his right to a jury trial.
- At a bench trial from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7, 2015, the trial court found Shubert guilty on all counts.
- Shubert was sentenced to life without parole for malice murder and 10 years to run concurrently for concealing the death of another.
- The trial court purported to merge the felony murder count, but that count was in fact vacated by operation of law, the ruling states.
- Shubert filed a timely motion for new trial on Dec. 14, 2015, and amended it through new counsel on Dec. 27, 2017.
- The parties submitted the motion for decision without a hearing, and the trial court denied the motion as amended on Aug. 17, 2018.
