Following a jury trial, George Law was found guilty of armed robbery1 and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.2 He appeals, arguing that the trial court erred by 1 denying his motion to suppress identification testimony and 2 denying his motion to suppress his custodial statement. He also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. We affirm, for reasons that follow. On appeal from a criminal conviction, 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 witness credibility. Likewise, when reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress, we construe the evidence presented both at the suppression hearing and at trial in a light favorable to upholding the trial court’s findings and judgment.3 So viewed, the record shows that on February 7, 2008, at approximately 2:30 a.m., brothers Patrick Horton and Immanuel Small left a nightclub and approached their car, which was in the parking lot across the street from the club. As Horton and Small entered their vehicle, an automobile pulled into the lot and parked nearby. Three men exited the car and approached Horton’s vehicle. One of the men, who was armed with a shotgun, ran from the driver’s side to the passenger’s side of the car repeatedly, pointing the gun at both Horton and Small. The gunman tried to break the driver’s side window with the butt of the shotgun and demanded that Horton roll down the window. Horton opened his door, and one of the men told him to “give it up.” As Horton unsuccessfully attempted to extricate his wallet from his pants pocket, one of the men punched him in the face with his fist. Small was also punched in the face by one of the men. Horton then exited the car, took off his pants, and gave them to one of the assailants. Small gave the men his wallet, as well as loose change and paper money from his pocket. The three men then returned to their car and left the scene. A witness from the nightclub called 911 at 2:27 a.m., while the robbery was occurring, and the police arrived shortly thereafter. The victims described their assailants, and police issued a be-on-the-lookout “BOLO” broadcast for a light brown or silver Lexus occupied by four black males, last seen heading northbound on Martin Luther King Boulevard. Two of the assailants were described as black males, “one being approximately 5 foot 11, 6 feet in height, with shoulder-length dreads, late teens, early twenties. The other one is about 5 feet 10, medium dreads.”
Very shortly thereafter, police spotted a “silver tannish Lexus,” but lost track of it when it sped off towards the Frazier Homes housing project. The police proceeded to Frazier Homes, where they located the parked, unoccupied Lexus. An officer saw Law “crouched down,” setting a shotgun next to the side of a building. The officer detained him and took possession of the shotgun. Another officer detained Law’s co-defendant, Kenneth Jerome Bellamy, in the same complex. According to police records, Law and Bellamy were detained at 2:43 a.m., approximately 16 minutes after the eyewitness called 911.
