Georgia Supreme Court upholds conviction of man’s involvement in toddler’s killing at Lakeview Apartments

FORT VALLEY, Ga — A Peach County man previously convicted for the death of a toddler at Lakeview Apartments requested an appeal, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of the crime; however, the Georgia Supreme Court disagrees. 

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Christopher Miller, who was involved in the July 2022 killing of 2-year-old Marcus Ball, Jr. at the Lakeview Apartment in Fort Valley alongside Wontazious Bivins and Jabari Thomas. Ball’s sister was also seriously injured during the shooting.  

On appeal, Miller argues that the evidence was not enough to convict him on the murder charges; however, after reviewing the evidence, the Georgia Supreme Court disagreed.

According to court documents, the incident that led to Ball’s death on the night of July 20, 2022, stemmed from a feud that was completely unrelated to the toddler.

Miller and another man were dating the same woman, which is what led to the shooting at Lakeview Apartments, where the other man lived. 

The day before the shooting, Miller went to the Lakeview Apartments to meet a person who was acquainted with the other man. During the meeting, someone tried to shoot at Miller. He says he thought he was being targeted. 

The next day, things continued to escalate, as an “abnormally large” group gathered at Lakeview Apartments, court documents state. A witness stated she saw Miller and Bivins with AK-47s and left the area before the shooting occurred. 

Later that night, gunfire erupted during a shootout, which began at 10:42 p.m. After the shootout, two bullets had hit the wall of Building D, where Marcus Ball Jr. was. He had been fatally shot. 

When appealing his case, Miller argued that the evidence was not enough to convict him on the murder charges.

The Georgia Supreme Court disagreed, stating that Miller and his companions were equipped with numerous firearms and that they fired towards the victims. Based on that evidence, the Georgia Supreme Court says there was sufficient evidence to convict him. The Georgia Supreme Court further stated that it was either Miller or someone in his party who likely fired the shots that killed Ball and injured his sister. 

“Under that standard, the evidence summarized above was sufficient to show, contrary to Miller’s contention, that either Miller or one of companions fired the shot that killed Marcus and injured his sister,” the Supreme Court wrote in their ruling. “In sum, even if Miller himself did not fire the fatal shot, the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to sustain his convictions at least as a party to the crimes.” 

Miller also argued about the malicious murder conviction. He argues that he did not intend to kill Ball and that, legally, his murder conviction could not stand.

The Georgia Supreme Court says that was not the case, citing the doctrine of transferred intent, which states that if a person tries to shoot and kill someone and hits someone else, they can be punished for their original intent. 

The court explained, in a previous case, that “when an unintended victim is struck down as a result of an unlawful act actually directed against someone else, the law prevents the actor from taking advantage of his own wrong and transfers the original intent from the one against whom it was directed to the one who actually suffered from it.”

This means that, even though someone else was Miller’s target, his conviction in Ball’s death can stand.