Burden v. State

── Burden v. State ── Court: Supreme Court of Georgia Date: June 02, 2026 Category: General NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and official text of the opinion. In the Supreme Court of Georgia No. S26A0063 Derrick Burden v. The State On Appeal from the Superior Court of DeKalb County No. 12SC12356 Decided: June 2, 2026 LAGRUA, Justice. Appellant Derrick Burden challenges his 2013 convictions for malice murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting deaths of Calvin Streater and Samuel Blizzard, Jr. 1 1 The crimes occurred on September 5, 2010. On July 17, 2012, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Burden on two counts of malice murder (Counts 1 and 2), six counts of felony murder (Counts 3-8), armed robbery (Count 9), two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (Counts 10 and 11), two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime (Counts 12 and 13), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (Count 14). At a trial from December 10 to 13, 2013, the jury found Burden guilty of all charges. On December 23, 2013, the trial court sentenced Burden to serve consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole on Counts 1 and 2, a concurrent sentence of life imprisonment on Count 9, and five-year sentences of imprisonment on each of the firearm possession charges, with the sentences on Counts 12 and 13 to run consecutively to Count 2, and the sentence on Count 14 to run consecutively to Count 13. The other verdicts were vacated by operation of law or merged. Burden’s trial counsel filed a timely motion for new trial. At a hearing in November 2015, Burden requested conflict-free counsel for appeal, and the trial court entered an order on June 10, 2016, directing the Burden contends that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence about his 2012 Clayton County convictions under OCGA § 24-4-404(b) (“Rule 404(b)”). Because we conclude that the trial court did not clearly abuse its discretion in admitting the Rule 404(b) evidence, we affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence presented at trial showed that on the evening of September 5, 2010, Streater and Blizzard were shot execution- style in an apartment in Atlanta, and Blizzard’s laptop and computer bag were stolen from the apartment. The initial investigation pointed to a single suspect who had (1) interacted with Streater on the morning of September 5 outside a convenience store near the apartment; (2) spent time with Streater at the apartment during the day on September 5; and (3) fled from police a short time after the murders, dropping Blizzard’s laptop bag, which contained the murder weapon and Blizzard’s laptop. In January 2012, Burden was identified as a suspect when officers learned that DNA found on a cigarette butt in the apartment matched Burden’s DNA, and when Burden was positively identified in a photo line-up by a person who had seen him with the laptop bag shortly after the murders. Georgia Public Defender C