Following trial, a jury convicted John Gordon of one count each of aggravated assault, motor-vehicle hijacking, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Gordon appeals his convictions and the denial of his motion for new trial, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence and arguing that the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury on the hijacking and possession-of-a-firearm charges. For the reasons set forth infra , we affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s guilty verdict,1 the evidence shows that around 8:30 p.m. on February 26, 2005, James Willingham drove his SUV into the parking lot of a gas station and went into the station’s convenience store to buy a soft drink. After making this purchase, Willingham left the store and walked back to his SUV, but just as he reached the driver’s side door, a young man wearing a hooded sweatshirt approached, pointed a Glock handgun at Willingham’s face, and ordered him to drop his car keys. Willingham eventually complied and ran back into the store while yelling for someone to call the police. The gunman then jumped into the driver’s seat of the SUV and attempted to start the engine, but could not do so. Hearing that his SUV’s engine would not start, Willingham ran back outside the store, at which point the gunman exited the SUV, fired two shots into the air to scare Willingham back into the store, and then ran through an alley toward the parking lot of a shopping center behind the gas station.
Nearly the entire incident was witnessed by an employee of a package store located in the shopping center behind the gas station. The package-store employee —who had just walked outside to go on a break —saw the gunman demand Willingham’s keys and then run from the scene after failing to start the SUV’s engine. Additionally, the employee saw that upon reaching the shopping center’s parking lot, the gunman got into the front passenger seat of a white Ford Crown Victoria, which appeared to have been waiting for him. And although the employee did not get a good look at the driver, the vehicle drove away slowly enough that he was able to see its license tag number, which he then provided to the police upon their arrival on the scene.
