Hodges v. State

BARNES, Presiding Judge.

A jury convicted Mario Hodges of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the assault, and misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense of felony murder. Hodges appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in sustaining the State’s objection to state-of-mind evidence, in qualifying a witness as an expert, and in giving the State’s requested jury charge on revenge as a motive, and that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to obtain an expert witness to rebut the State’s claim he acted with excessive force. For the reasons that…