Defendant Acquitted of Aggravated Assault and Burglary

Helena-McRae, Georgia: In July 2024, attorneys J. Travis Griffin and P. MacKenzie Miller represented a man charged in Telfair County Superior Court with aggravated assault and first-degree burglary.  Mr. Griffin and Mrs. Miller convinced the jury that the Defendant was not guilty of those felonies, but was, instead, simply guilty of two misdemeanor charges.

On the date of the alleged crimes, the Defendant was intoxicated and walking around his neighborhood at night with a .22 caliber rifle.  The Defendant began to incessantly knock on his neighbor’s front door.  The neighbor opened the door to the Defendant,  realized the Defendant’s state of intoxication, took the rifle out of the Defendant’s hands, and went back inside his house, placing the rifle next to the door.

Moments later, the Defendant entered the home, took back his rifle, and left the premises.  The Defendant was arrested with the rifle minutes later in the yard at his own home.  Law enforcement charged the Defendant with aggravated assault and residential burglary.

At trial, Mr. Griffin and Mrs. Miller thoroughly cross examined the alleged victims and law enforcement witnesses to show that the neighbor was not in imminent fear of serious bodily injury or death when he opened his door and took the rifle out of the Defendant’s hands.  Further, Hogue Griffin presented evidence that it is not a residential burglary when a person takes property back from someone who took it from them.

After a four-day trial, the Defendant was found guilty of two misdemeanors and was acquitted of the two felonies with which he was originally charged.