A Dekalb County jury found Antavious Askew guilty of aggravated assault, and following the denial of his motion for new trial, he appeals. He enumerates as error the trial court’s grant of the State’s motion in limine to exclude evidence of the victim’s cocaine use, and the trial court’s ruling that he could not use the victim’s prior convictions for impeachment purposes. He also contends that trial counsel was ineffective. Following our review, we affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the evidence shows that the victim was leaving a friend’s house in the early morning hours of November 22, 2007, when a man he later identified as Askew jumped out of a blue Trailblazer and chased him. The victim recognized the truck as belonging to Askew’s father, Antonio McMichael, who was apparently driving. Askew chased the victim until the victim fell, after which Askew began to beat him with a baton-like stick. McMichael joined Askew, and the men beat the victim for approximately 20 minutes. When the men finished beating him, the victim called police, who responded and the victim was transported to the hospital with severe injuries, including a possible skull fracture. Although he initially told the 911 operator that he did not know who had attacked him, the victim later told police that Askew and McMichael had attacked him, and positively identified the men from a photographic lineup. Askew was charged with aggravated assault and armed robbery, and following a joint jury trial with McMichael, he was acquitted of armed robbery, but found guilty of aggravated assault.1 At trial, Askew maintained that the victim had wrongly identified him as the person who attacked him, and presented alibi witnesses as to his location the night of the attack.
1. Askew first contends that the trial court erred in granting the State’s motion in limine to exclude evidence of the victim’s cocaine use. Askew maintains that the evidence was relevant to dispute the victim’s identification of his attackers because the presence of cocaine in his system on the night of the attack could have affected the victim’s ability to recall the events of the attacks, in particular his identification of his attackers.
