Carol Scott was charged with driving under the influence to the extent it was less safe to drive in violation of OCGA § 40-6-391 a 1 “DUI less safe”, driving under the influence with a blood alcohol concentration in excess of the legal limit in violation of OCGA § 40-6-391 a 5 “DUI per se”, and failure to maintain lane in violation of OCGA § 40-6-48. A jury convicted Scott of DUI less safe and acquitted her of the remaining charges. Scott filed a motion for new trial, which the trial court denied following a hearing. She appeals, arguing that her trial counsel was ineffective and that the trial court erred in numerous ways, including by refusing to dismiss a juror, denying her motion in limine to exclude certain evidence, denying her motion for mistrial based on improper testimony, violating OCGA § 17-8-57, and refusing to give a requested jury charge. Having carefully considered these contentions, we now affirm.
The evidence, construed to support the jury’s verdict,1 shows that on the night of January 4, 2013, Trooper Thomas Bailey with the Georgia State Patrol initiated a traffic stop of the vehicle Scott was driving after he saw her cross at least one tire over the centerline on four different occasions. Trooper Bailey noticed a very strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from inside the vehicle and asked Scott if she had been drinking. Scott told him that she had consumed one glass of wine, which Trooper Bailey did not think was consistent with the strong odor of alcohol he detected, and he asked Scott to step outside the vehicle. Trooper Bailey testified that the odor of alcohol coming from Scott’s person as she stood outside the vehicle was “very intense,” and that he noticed she had other signs of impairment, such as blood shot, watery eyes. Based on these observations, Trooper Bailey asked Scott if she would submit to a preliminary roadside breath test. Scott said she would “rather not” take the roadside breath test, but agreed to submit to other field sobriety tests, including the horizontal gaze nystagmus “HGN” test, the walk-and-turn test, and the one-leg-stand test. Trooper Bailey testified that based on his training and experience, Scott’s performance on all three tests plus the other signs he had observed indicated to him that she was impaired and “didn’t need to be driving.” He also testified that a recording of Scott performing the field sobriety tests was made by a video camera mounted inside his car, and that video was introduced by the State and played for the jury at trial.
