The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a Guyton man in the death of a 2-year-old in 2009.
Lester Casey Griffin was found guilty in 2010 by a jury and sentenced to life without parole plus 20 years in the beating death of Dylan Helmey, the son of his live-in girlfriend.
At trial Dr. James Downs, the coastal regional medical examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in Savannah, testified that the boy was a victim of battered-child syndrome and died after a fatal blow to his chest ripped a hole in the child’s heart.
Griffin was found guilty of felony murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter on a charge of malice murder and guilty on four other charges associated with cruelty to children, aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
Griffin told investigators during a taped interview he had hit the child after he and his younger son got into his compact-disc collection.
Griffin's attorney, Public Defender Robert Persse, said Griffin was responsible for the child’s death, but that it wasn't murder.
“He died out of a reaction of frustration by a young, inexperienced stand-in parent,” Persse said at trial.
In the appeal Persse argued the guilty verdicts of felony murder and involuntary manslaughter were mutually exclusive and should be reversed.
The appeal stated that by finding Griffin guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the jury found the blow to Helmey's chest was battery, a misdemeanor. That the blow to Helmey's chest was both a misdemeanor and felony is “inherently contradictory,” Persee argued.
The Supreme Court disagreed and stated the jury did not have to find that Griffin acted with malice, only that Griffin had intentionally caused the child pain and harm.
Involuntary manslaughter is committed when the person causes the death of another without intention to by the commission of an “unlawful act other than a felony” the court stated.