A Spalding County jury found Ebony Smith guilty of trafficking in cocaine, OCGA § 16-13-31 a 1 C. She appeals from the denial of her motion for new trial, contending that the evidence was insufficient to support her conviction and that she received ineffective assistance of counsel. Finding no error, we affirm. 1. In four related enumerated errors, Smith argues that the trial court erred in denying her motion for a directed verdict and that the evidence was insufficient to support her convictions. According to Smith, the evidence showed that she was merely present in the car where the cocaine was discovered, that she did not know that the cocaine was hidden in the car’s trunk, and that others had had access to the car before she and her co-defendant, Dante Hampton, took possession of it. A motion for a directed verdict should be granted only when there is no conflict in the evidence and the evidence demands a verdict of acquittal as a matter of law. The standard of review for the denial of a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal is the same as for determining the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction: the evidence must be sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of the charged offense. The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to support the verdict and the defendant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence; moreover, an appellate court determines evidence sufficiency and does not weigh the evidence or determine the credibility of witnesses. Footnotes omitted. Hughes v. State , 297 Ga. App. 217 676 SE2d 852 2009. See also Bray v. State , 294 Ga. App. 562, 563 1 669 SE2d 509 2008 “A jury is authorized to believe or disbelieve all or any part of the testimony of witnesses, and it serves as the arbiter of conflicts in the evidence before it.” citation and punctuation omitted.
Viewed in this light, the evidence shows that, at about 9:30 p.m. on May 30, 2007, an officer with the Spalding County Sheriff’s Department was patrolling the southbound lanes on Interstate 75 when he observed a car that was being driven with about one third of its width in the inside left lane and the rest in the middle lane. Shortly thereafter, the driver moved into the middle lane, but then merged partially into the inside lane again. After the officer conducted a traffic stop, the driver identified herself as Ebony Smith, and the passenger was Dante Hampton. The car was a rental car that a man named Vernon James had rented about two hours earlier in Atlanta; Hampton was listed as an additional driver on the rental agreement, but Smith was not. According to the agreement, the car was supposed to be turned in at the Orlando, Florida airport.
