Ga. Supreme Court Expected to Hear Sims Case Today

The Georgia Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments today in the case of a Toccoa man seeking a new trial on a 2012 felony murder conviction.

The Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office is appealing to the state Supreme Court a Superior Court order granting a new trial to Steve A. Sims, Jr.

Sims, Jr. was convicted of felony murder and other charges in September 2012 and sentenced to life in prison with the opportunity of parole in connection to the March 2012 death of Shawn Hancock of Toccoa during an altercation the two men had at Sims, Jr.’s South Sage Street home.

However, Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Chan Caudell granted a motion for a new trial for Sims in May.

Attorneys for Sims, Jr. say that he should receive a new trial because he received ineffective trial counsel because his trial attorneys did not object to prosecution comments regarding Sims, Jr.’s pre-arrest silence and failure to come forward, comments Sims, Jr.’s attorneys argue were improper.

Judge Caudell concluded in his order that the prosecution’s comments were improper and should have been objected to by trial counsel.

However, prosecutors have appealed the ruling granting a new trial.

They argue that the trial court failed to consider other similar cases in which such comments were not deemed improper.

Also, prosecutors argue that the defense counsel was not deficient and that it was a matter of trial strategy for the trial counsel about whether to object to the comments when they were made, which counsel chose not to do.