The Georgia Supreme Court reversed the malice murder conviction of a Sandy Springs man sentenced to life in prison for the death of a resident with whom he had a heated argument before being struck by the defendant’s car.
Bryan Keith Schmitt challenged his malice murder conviction of September 2022 for the death of Hami Jahangard, 60, who died after being hit by Schmitt’s car. The Supreme Court’s April 30 ruling agreed with his argument that the trial court erred by denying his request to instruct the jury on the defense of accident on all counts.
“We conclude that the trial court erred because at least slight evidence supported that charge. Because the State has not carried its burden to show that it is highly probable that this error did not contribute to the verdict, we reverse Schmitt’s conviction,” the Supreme Court said in its opinion on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court also said in its opinion that the evidence in the case was legally sufficient to sustain Schmitt’s conviction, so the State may retry him.
“The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has been in communication with the victim’s family and will be retrying the case as soon as possible,” spokesperson Pallavi Bailey told Rough Draft.
Schmitt will be sent back to the Fulton County Jail his attorney, Don Samuel of Garland, Samuel & Loeb of Atlanta, told Rough Draft. A bond hearing will be held for his release while awaiting the possibility of a new trial.
Samuel said the case is back to pretrial status.
Schmitt has been in jail for approximately one year and eight months, he said.
The collision occurred on July 30, 2019, when Schmitt said his car was struck by a golf ball while commuting home from work along River Valley Road.
Schmitt saw Jahangard standing by the road and Schmitt turned his car around. The two exchanged words, then Schmitt said he pulled into a driveway to turn around and accidentally struck Jahangard. Scmitt’s testimony and that of witnesses were inconsistent.
During the trial, Schmitt requested a jury instruction on the defense of the accident and said that the evidence supported that charge. The Supreme Court opinion said that the trial court initially said that it was a proper instruction but changed its position several times before rejecting it on all counts.
Rough Draft has reached out to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for comment and to ask if the State plans to retry the case. No response has been received at this time.