High Court Upholds Smyrna Man's Murder Conviction

The state's highest court today upheld the conviction of a Smyrna man serving a life sentence for murder.

A Cobb County jury found Anthony Jabbar Shaw guilty of malice murder on Feb. 17, 2010, nearly eight months after the June 21, 2009, fatal stabbing of Baron Harbin of Smyrna.

That day, Baron Harbin made plans to meet his estranged wife at a gas station to return their children, who had been visiting with him. The couple separated in August 2007. Instead of going to the gas station, Baron Harbin drove the children to the apartment that Myra Harbin shared with Shaw.

What happened next is detailed in court records.

At the apartment, Baron Harbin confronted Shaw and demanded that he leave the residence and stay away from his children. Shaw closed the front door of the apartment to Baron Harbin and the children. Baron Harbin banged loudly on the door and called for Shaw to come outside.

A neighbor told Baron Harbin that he needed to leave, and he complied. He went to his car and began to drive away. Shaw retrieved a large knife from the kitchen of the apartment, exited the apartment through a back door, and approached Baron Harbin as he was driving away.

Baron Harbin stopped and exited his vehicle. The men began to scuffle. At some point, Baron Harbin fell to the ground. Baron Harbin, who was unarmed, had been stabbed twice in the chest. One of the stab wounds was fatal.

When a witness said something about calling the police, Shaw ran away and threw the knife into a wooded area. That evening, Shaw called his uncle and said that he had done a terrible thing. Shaw later surrendered to police, at which time he volunteered that he had stabbed Baron Harbin, that he had done so to protect himself, and that he had thought Baron Harbin was about to reach for “something” at the time he stabbed him.

Shaw's trial started Feb. 15, 2010, records show. After the Cobb County jury returned its verdict on Feb. 17, 2010, Shaw filed a motion for new trial on Feb. 23, 2010. He amended the motion on Sept. 1, 2011. The trial court denied his motion on Oct. 17, 2011, and on Nov. 1, 2011, the trial court extended the time for Shaw to file a notice of appeal for 30 days. Shaw filed a notice of appeal on Dec. 14, 2011. The case was docketed in the Supreme Court of Georgia for the January 2013 term and orally argued on Jan. 8, 2013.

Shaw contended that his attorney was ineffective, that Baron Harbin was the aggressor and that he stabbed him in self-defense. He argued that the trial court erred when it failed to charge the jury that one acting in defense of self has no duty to retreat.

"At trial, however, Shaw neither requested a charge on the duty to retreat nor objected when the trial court failed to give such a charge," the justices wrote in today's opinion.

The justices said Shaw failed to show that the outcome of the trial would have been different if the lower court had given such a charge.

"Upon our review of the briefs and record," the justices wrote, "we find no error, and we affirm."