Turntime v. State
| Decision Date | 09 November 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. A92A1556,A92A1556 |
| Citation | 206 Ga.App. 226,424 S.E.2d 877 |
| Parties | TURNTIME v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Clifford M. Weiss, Atlanta, for appellant.
Lewis R. Slaton, Dist. Atty., for appellee.
Willie Rufus Turntime was charged with theft by taking an automobile and by receiving a stolen automobile. A jury acquitted him of the charge of theft by taking and convicted him of theft by receiving. He appeals.
The evidence adduced at trial showed that on November 14, 1990, Detective Richard Brown of the Atlanta Police Department's fugitive squad was in an unmarked car when his attention was drawn to a late model red Honda Accord because it had unrepaired body damage. Detective Brown followed the car and asked his radio dispatcher to check its tag number. After being informed by the dispatcher that the tag number did not match the Honda, he asked for a uniformed patrol to stop the car, which was traveling away at excessive speed. When the Honda had been stopped, Brown asked the driver, later identified as appellant, for a driver's license and registration. Appellant identified himself as "Robert Lorenzo" and could produce neither a driver's license nor any ownership or registration documents for the car. Detective Samuel Gilbert of the Atlanta Police Department Auto Theft Squad, who was called to the scene by Detective Brown, testified that upon confirming by radio that the tag was stolen, he then requested a check on the vehicle identification number and was informed that the car had been reported stolen on October 22, 1990. Gilbert advised appellant of his rights and placed him under arrest. Gilbert testified that appellant gave his name as "Robert Lorenzo," but his true identity was discovered from fingerprints taken when he was booked. The owner of the car testified that when the car was stolen, it had been parked unlocked in her driveway with a spare key hidden in the ashtray. When it was returned to her by the police, the car had new body damage, and the interior contained trash and dirty clothing and was in an extremely poor state of repair, with all interior surfaces covered with cigarette burns. Appellant testified that he had borrowed the car from a man he knew only as "Anthony," whom he met in his neighborhood several days earlier; that because Anthony had a job and could have bought a car he believed the car was Anthony's; that Anthony gave him both a trunk key and an ignition key; that he was using the car to take his family's dirty clothes to the laundry; and that he had no knowledge that the car had been stolen.
In two enumerations, appellant contends the trial court erred by denying his motions for a directed verdict of acquittal and that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction because the State failed to prove his knowledge that the car was stolen. We do not agree.
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...397 S.E.2d 36 (1990) (registration papers in owner's name and theft tool found in stolen vehicle). 5. See Turntime v. State, 206 Ga.App. 226, 227(1), 424 S.E.2d 877 (1992) (defendant gave police false name). 6. (Citation omitted.) Gill v. State, 229 Ga.App. 462, 463-464(2), 494 S.E.2d 259 (......