Fitzgerald gang member’s guilty verdict, sentence upheld by state Supreme Court

ATLANTA — The Supreme Court has upheld the convictions and life prison sentence of a Ben Hill County gang member who took part in the January 2016 murder of a Georgia Lottery jackpot winner. Nathaniel Baker was one of several co-defendants who were affiliated with the “G-Shine Bloods” and indicted for violent crimes in connection with the death of Craigory Burch Jr.

According to the opinion, the gang targeted Burch because he had won a $400,000 lottery prize. (The Supreme Court in November 2019 upheld the murder conviction and life sentence of co- defendant Wayan Malik Jordan. Another co-defendant, Dabrentise Coki Overstreet, has a pending murder conviction appeal before the high court.)

Baker, who was indicted on more than a dozen charges, was tried alone in January 2017. Evidence presented at trial indicated Baker, along with Overstreet and Jordan, burst through the front door of Burch’s home with their guns drawn on the evening of Jan. 20, 2016. Burch was sitting on the couch in his living room with his girlfriend and two of their young children, one of whom was sitting in Burch’s lap.

Overstreet and Jordan held Burch and his girlfriend at gunpoint and demanded money, while Baker went to the back of the house to look for valuables. During the hold-up, Overstreet shot Burch several times in his legs. A short while after the three gang members exited Burch’s house, Overstreet walked back in and shot Burch several more times. Overstreet then turned the gun on Burch’s girlfriend, but the gun failed to fire. The group later reconvened at the home of an acquaintance, Katherine Tillman, where they divided the stolen property amongst themselves.

While the murder weapon in this case was never located, officers found five 9mm bullets and 11 shell casings inside the victims’ house. Ballistics testing determined the items matched an Intratec 9mm pistol — the same type of gun Baker was known to carry and that Overstreet used during the robbery. Officers also lifted a fingerprint from the back door handle of Burch’s house that later was matched to Baker’s thumb.

The trial jury found Baker guilty of felony murder and 12 other crimes. Baker was sentenced as a recidivist to life in prison without the possibility of parole for felony murder, two other concurrent life sentences for home invasion and armed robbery, and additional time for other charges.

In his appeal, Baker claimed the evidence was legally insufficient to support his convictions for the felony murder of Burch and the aggravated assault of Burch’s girlfriend because prosecutors failed to show that Baker was a party to the crimes when Overstreet re-entered the home. In oral argument before the Court on May 18, 2021, Baker’s counsel claimed that Baker’s role in the crimes ended when he exited Burch’s home.

In today’s unanimous opinion, the high court notes the volume of evidence presented at trial that points to Baker’s knowing involvement in the crimes.

“Here, the evidence presented at trial showed that Baker’s phone was in frequent contact with Overstreet’s phone on the day of the crimes, Baker agreed to take part in the robbery and home invasion, he rummaged through the home while his co-defendants held the victims at gunpoint, he continued to search the home after Overstreet fired the first three shots into Burch’s legs, he heard Overstreet state that he was going back to the house to kill Burch, and he returned to Tillman’s house with his co-defendants and participated in the division of the proceeds from the robbery,” Justice Verda M. Colvin wrote in the high court’s opinion. “Finally, the evidence showed that the murder weapon was an Intratec 9mm pistol and that Baker brought such a weapon to be used in the robbery.”

Baker also argued that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction for the aggravated assault of Burch’s young child, referred to as C.B., because prosecutors failed to present any evidence that C.B. was placed in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury.

Again, the Court disagreed, noting that testimony by Burch’s girlfriend and a neighbor at trial indicated they heard Burch’s children screaming and crying.

“A jury could infer from this that C.B. was placed in reasonable apprehension (of being injured violently) and, therefore, this evidence authorized a rational jury to find Baker guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the aggravated assault of C.B.,” Colvin wrote.

Lastly, Baker argued — and the state conceded — that the trial court erred by allowing prosecutors to introduce the criminal convictions of third-party gang members. At trial, the state called two law enforcement officers to testify about prior criminal activity committed by other members of the G-Shine Bloods. However, the state argued that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, and the Supreme Court agreed.

“Here, the state presented ample evidence at trial that Baker was a member of the ‘G-Shine Bloods,’ a criminal street gang, and evidence connecting ‘G-Shine’ to the crimes at issue in this case,” Colvin wrote. “Because this evidence was largely cumulative of other evidence already introduced regarding the G-Shine gang’s criminal activity, and its prejudicial effect against Baker was limited because he was not involved in the prior acts, we cannot say that there is a reasonable possibility that the improperly admitted third-party evidence contributed to the verdict.”

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