Georgia Supreme Court rules in murder conviction appeal of Columbus drug robbery case
The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction and sentence of a man who shot a 25-year-old during a drug robbery at the Sands Apartments on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The decision means Dana Michael Kessler will continue serving a sentence of life without parole in the April 6, 2012, death of Jeffrey Morgan, who was mortally wounded during a marijuana deal outside the 1213 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. apartment complex.
Kessler is serving his time at the Telfair State Prison in McRae-Helena.
The high court heard arguments in Kessler’s appeal back in December.
His attorneys argued Kessler’s videotaped confession to police was not freely given, and the jury should not have heard it during his 2013 trial in Muscogee Superior Court.
Absent that statement, prosecutors had little evidence to prove Kessler fired the fatal shot, the defense claimed.
Kessler’s attorneys also argued Judge William Rumer erred in allowing prosecutors to misstate the law during closing arguments, before the jury found Kessler guilty of killing Morgan during the commission of other felonies such as robbery.
In their unanimous decision, the justices ruled Kessler’s statements to police were given freely without hope of benefit, and the trial judge corrected any misunderstandings related to the prosecutor’s closing arguments to the jury.
‘Hold on, man’
Morgan was shot in his car in the apartments parking lot, where Kessler and Timothy Leshan Robinson met him to buy marijuana, police said.
They arrived to find Morgan in the driver’s seat of his Mazda as he dealt with another customer, who was in the front passenger’s seat. Robinson and Kessler got in the back seat where Morgan showed them some marijuana.
That’s when Kessler pulled out a .45-caliber pistol and pointed it between the front seats at Morgan, who pleaded, “Hold on man. Please don’t shoot me, man.”
Kessler pulled the trigger, and the bullet went through Morgan’s right arm and into his chest.
Robinson jumped out and fled in Kessler’s Mitsubishi Galant, and the other customer ran across the street. Kessler then dragged Morgan from the driver’s seat and drove off in Morgan’s Mazda, leaving Morgan to bleed to death on the ground.
Kessler later met up with Robinson, dividing the stolen marijuana between them, and abandoned Morgan’s car.
Police arrested them two days later, and questioned Kessler for hours until he finally told them what happened, claiming the gun fired accidentally.
Robinson went to trial with Kessler, and also was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life with parole, for which convicts typically become eligible after serving 30 years. When Rumer sentenced them in November 2013, Kessler was 28, and Robinson was 20.