Peterson v. State
| Citation | 419 S.E.2d 757,204 Ga.App. 532 |
| Decision Date | 10 June 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. A92A0247,A92A0247 |
| Parties | PETERSON v. The STATE. |
| Court | United States Court of Appeals (Georgia) |
Elizabeth A. Baker, Jonesboro, for appellant.
Robert E. Keller, Dist. Atty. and Deborah N. Maron, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.
Appellant appeals from his conviction of aggravated assault, carrying a concealed weapon and carrying a firearm to a public place.
Appellant, along with Gloria Howard and two others, visited Jonesboro Senior High School for the purpose of checking Howard's son out of school. Howard's son had been threatened during the day by a group of students. The assistant principal of the school saw Howard's group at the school after the school released Howard's son. As the assistant principal asked the group to leave the school premises, the bell signalling the end of the day rang, and a mass exit of the students began. Howard and her son walked away to approach one of the students, and the assistant principal remained with appellant and one other of Howard's group. As one student, Sherrod Meadows, exited the school, the assistant principal observed appellant approach Meadows and engage in a verbal exchange. Appellant then moved toward the assistant principal, pulled a gun out of his slacks, cocked the gun, pointed it to the assistant principal's nose and stated that he "was gonna get rid of all these mother ______." As the assistant principal asked appellant for the gun, appellant waved the gun around, waved it at Meadows and made a 360 degree circle, waving the gun at a crowd of students which had gathered around him. The assistant principal ran into the office to call for assistance, and when she returned to the scene, Howard, appellant and the group had left the school. Meadows testified that he was afraid when appellant waved the gun at him. The assistant principal gave the officer who responded to the call a vehicle description, tag number, description of the occupants of the vehicle and pointed out the direction Howard's vehicle had taken. The police air unit spotted the vehicle, and the officer went to the location where the vehicle had been stopped. The officer found a nine millimeter semi-automatic handgun in the vehicle with one round of ammunition loaded in the chamber of the gun and another round of ammunition loaded in the clip. The gun was cocked, the safety was off and it was ready to fire. Appellant was indicted and convicted of aggravated assault against Meadows, carrying a concealed weapon and carrying a firearm to a public place.
1. Appellant first enumerates that the trial court erred in failing to grant appellant's motion for directed verdict or motion for new trial, asserting the insufficiency of the evidence to convict appellant of aggravated assault against Meadows. Daughtry v. State, 180 Ga.App. 711(1), 712, 350 S.E.2d 53 (1986). Cline v. State, 199 Ga.App. 532, 533(2), 405 S.E.2d 524 (1991). We conclude that the evidence presented in this case was sufficient to sustain a finding of guilt of the crime charged by a rational trier of fact...
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...Zachary v. State, 245 Ga. 2, 262 S.E.2d 779 (1980)." Patterson v. State, 256 Ga. 740, 741(2), 353 S.E.2d 338. See Peterson v. State, 204 Ga.App. 532, 534(3), 419 S.E.2d 757. 4. In his third enumeration, defendant contends the trial court improperly commented on the evidence when he asked co......
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