Williams v. State
| Decision Date | 01 July 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. A98A1569.,A98A1569. |
| Citation | 504 S.E.2d 53,233 Ga. App. 217 |
| Parties | WILLIAMS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Stanley C. House, Augusta, for appellant.
Daniel J. Craig, District Attorney, Charles R. Sheppard, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
Robert Donnell Williams appeals his conviction of armed robbery (two counts), kidnapping (four counts), aggravated assault (two counts), possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime (four counts), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, following a jury trial. Williams was tried with co-defendants Donnie Boone and James Courtney. Williams contends the evidence adduced was insufficient to support the verdict and that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict and in admitting certain evidence. We disagree and affirm.
1. On appeal we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and the appellant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence. We neither weigh the evidence nor determine witness credibility. Grant v. State, 195 Ga.App. 463, 464(1), 393 S.E.2d 737 (1990). Rather, we determine whether, after viewing the evidence in this light, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Viewed in this light, the record reveals the following pertinent facts:
Around 11:00 p.m. on June 26, 1994, a Damon's restaurant in Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia, was robbed. Shortly after completing her closing duties, employee Patricia Sheppard left the restaurant through the back door. She got into her car and drove it behind the restaurant and parked next to the dumpster. As she was removing a box from the trunk of her car and throwing it into the dumpster, a man came up behind her. The man grabbed her, put a gun to her head, and ordered her back inside the restaurant. As she was being pushed toward the door, Sheppard noticed another man getting inside her car. Because Sheppard could not open the back door, she knocked on it until her co-worker, Darean Jordan, unlocked the door and let her in. The robber pushed Sheppard inside the building, demanding that she keep walking. He took Jordan's keys and ordered them to take him to the safe or he would shoot them. Sheppard noticed that another man followed them into the restaurant. She saw this man throw a towel over the surveillance camera—a camera that would not have been visible upon entry. The robbers ordered Jordan and three other closing employees—Michael Vidal, Sarah Romeo, and Daniel Troup—to move into the office. Sheppard managed to slip away during the commotion and hide in another part of the restaurant.
Upon entering the office, the robbers told Romeo to put the evening's proceeds into a plastic bag the robbers had brought with them. The robbers took the evening's $7,000 in receipts, which consisted of cash (including a $1,000 bill), several $10 rolls of quarters, and numerous credit card receipts. After filling the bag, one of the robbers grabbed Romeo by the arm and said "You're going with me." He told the other employees not to move or he would shoot Romeo. On their way out of the restaurant, the robbers locked Romeo into a closet with the Damon's restaurant keys. In addition to the evening's receipts, the robbers took Sheppard's Cadillac, her purse, and her cell phone.
The Damon's employees could not identify the robbers. The two who were observed inside the restaurant were described as black males wearing dark clothing and stocking masks.
Shortly after 11:00 p.m., Jay Watkins, a man who resided near Damon's, noticed a two-door silver-grey car parked along the road with its interior light on. As he drove by the car, he noticed that the driver's door was ajar and that the driver was standing outside the car. His suspicions aroused, Watkins wrote down the car's tag number. Fifteen minutes later, on his way back home, he noticed a Cadillac with its trunk open abandoned in the same area. Watkins also wrote down the tag number of this car. When he returned home, he called the police. The police determined that the abandoned Cadillac was Sheppard's. They found a roll of quarters and a stocking mask in the Cadillac.
Suspecting that the silver-grey car may have been involved in the robbery, the police located the car's owner, Valerie Davis, and obtained a warrant to search her car and her residence. The police found a 9 mm bullet, a wallet belonging to Donnie Boone, and a large number of quarters in Davis' car. They found five $20 bills in her purse. Davis told police and testified at trial that she received the money from Boone, her cousin. She loaned her car to Boone that evening so that he and his friends, James Courtney and Donnell Williams, could go out. Davis also said that she, Williams, Boone, and Courtney had spent the afternoon together, visiting at the home of Michelle Dunn. Around midnight, Boone returned Davis' car to her at Dunn's house. Davis then drove Boone to a hotel. When she dropped him off, she saw Williams leaning over the second floor balcony of the hotel.
The police then spoke with Michelle Dunn, James Courtney's girl friend, who confirmed in part Davis' account of the evening. Upon a consent search of Dunn's residence, the investigators found a pair of pantyhose from which the legs had been cut. The shade of the hose matched that of the stocking leg mask found in the back of the Cadillac. Based upon this information, the investigators got a warrant for Boone's arrest and then went to the hotel.
During their search of Boone's hotel room, the investigators found a loaded 9 mm handgun, a black plastic bag filled with Damon's credit card receipts, a bank bag, a $1,000 bill, and the restaurant keys. Also in the bag were Patricia Sheppard's wallet, cell phone and car keys, and dark-colored clothing similar to that worn by the robbers. Williams and Boone each had about $1,300 in cash stuffed in their pockets. Police later learned that Boone once worked at Damon's as a dishwasher and thus would have known of the surveillance camera in the restaurant's kitchen.
James Courtney was also arrested. He gave a statement acknowledging that he knew Boone and Williams had planned to commit a robbery at Damon's. He also gave police his one-third share of the robbery proceeds, $1,390, explaining that Williams and Boone had asked him to keep this money for them. Courtney's statement was admitted into evidence. Courtney, who testified at trial and denied any involvement in the robbery, was also cross-examined with respect to his prior inconsistent statements.
This evidence was sufficient to enable rational jurors to find Williams guilty on all counts beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, supra.
2. Williams contends the trial court erred in admitting the testimony of an investigating officer whose name was not on the state's formal witness list. Williams, however, voiced no objection when the officer testified. Thus, the error was not preserved for our review. Lockleer v. State, 188 Ga. App. 271, 272-273(3), 372 S.E.2d 663 (1988). Although one of Williams' co-defendants objected, that objection did not inure to Williams' benefit because he did not join in it. "[W]here a defendant does not expressly adopt the objection of a co-defendant, he thereby waives that objection and may not utilize it to gain review."...
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