GA High Court Upholds Convicted Murderer's Sentence In Wife's Death

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia's highest court has upheld the murder conviction for a man who shot his wife to death in Cherokee County.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court's ruling that denied a new trial for Charles Collins. He was convicted of murder in connection with the July 2023 shooting death of wife Deborah Collins in Canton.

The deadly shooting happened around 2:15 a.m., July 24, at a New Light Road home, according to Cherokee County District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway's office in the past.

Prosecutors said local deputies found Charles Collins holding a Smith and Wesson .38 special revolver while his wife laid dead on the living room floor. She suffered a gunshot wound to the neck and a knife in her right hand, prosecutors said.

At the time, prosecutors said there was no blood on the knife nor on other nearby objects.

Determining the scene to not "be an open and shut case of self-defense," prosecutors at the time said there were staging signs that showed Deborah Collins was not holding the knife when she was shot.

Charles Collins did not render aid or call 911; and instead, "he called his son and told him he ‘shot that b----,’” prosecutors said.

He was convicted after a six-day trial and a three-hour jury deliberation, prosecutors said. A motive was not revealed.

The supreme court on Tuesday said Charles Collins was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault (family violence) and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony on Oct. 9, 2023.

Charles Collins, who was age 71 at the time, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on Feb. 2, 2024, the supreme court said. An additional five-year sentence was vacated, and the malice murder and aggravated assault charges were merged for sentencing, the supreme court said.

That day, he filed a motion for a new trial, which an appellate court denied, the supreme court said.

He later filed a new appeal with the high court, advising insufficient evidence; however, the supreme court ruled the specific matter was abandoned during the initial appeal.

"... He has not made any argument whatsoever that the evidence was constitutionally insufficient to
support his convictions. As a result, Collins has not provided us 'with any meaningful opportunity to analyze why the record evidence does not support his convictions,'" the supreme court said in its opinion.

"... Collins’s failure to articulate why the evidence in this case was insufficient compels us to conclude that the sole issue on appeal has been abandoned, and the judgment therefore must be affirmed."