Garland v. State

PHIPPS, Presiding Judge.

Convicted of numerous offenses, Mack Garland raises claims concerning trial counsel ineffectiveness, evidentiary sufficiency, and merging of counts for sentencing purposes. We find merit in only the merger claim, and thus affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand the case for resentencing.

For purposes here, the trial evidence can be summarized as follows. On December 10, 2003, two men broke into a residence and demanded at gunpoint drugs from the homeowner, an admitted marijuana dealer. During the encounter, one of the intruders used a gun to strike the homeowner…