Andra Easter was tried by a Richmond County jury and found guilty of one count of burglary1 and one count of aggravated assault.2 He now appeals from the denial of his motion for a new trial, arguing that the trial court’s jury charge violated his due process rights by allowing the jury to convict him of committing both burglary and aggravated assault by a method not alleged in the indictment. Easter further contends that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that it should first consider whether Easter was guilty of burglary before considering the lesser included offense of criminal trespass. For reasons explained below, we reverse the trial court’s denial of Easter’s motion for a new trial as to the charge of aggravated assault, but affirm the denial of that motion as to the charge of burglary.
“On appeal from a criminal conviction, the defendant is no longer entitled to a presumption of innocence and we therefore construe the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s guilty verdict.” Marriott v. State, 320 Ga. App. 58 739 SE2d 68 2013 citation omitted. So viewed, the record shows that Easter’s victim was his former girlfriend, DeShawn Coatney. Easter had lived with Coatney at her residence for approximately 18 months before the couple broke up in January 2006. Evidence of prior difficulties between the couple was introduced at trial and showed that after Easter moved out of Coatney’s residence, Coatney had to call police several times because of Easter’s harassing and sometimes violent behavior. According to Coatney, during the approximately six weeks between the end of the couple’s romantic relationship and the incident at issue, she called police to her home on three or four occasions because Easter had appeared at her residence uninvited and refused to leave. Additionally, because Easter was consistently attempting to gain entrance to the house, Coatney had to change the locks on her residence several times in the span of a few weeks. An officer with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department testified that on February 6, 2006, he responded to a call regarding a domestic dispute at Coatney’s residence. Coatney explained to the officer that Easter had been coming to her house repeatedly and trying to gain entrance and that on the night in question he had broken the screen door. The officer observed that the door had been damaged and the handle broken off. Another local police officer testified that on February 17, 2006, he responded to a call placed by Coatney regarding a traffic incident. Coatney reported that Easter had followed her home from work, rammed her car with his, and then attempted to break her car window with a crowbar. The officer noted damage to the rear bumper of Coatney’s car and to one of the car’s headlights and also observed that the passenger side mirror appeared to have been “knocked off” with an “object.”
