Following a jury trial, Vandy Mack Daniels was convicted of armed robbery,1 aggravated assault,2 and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.3 Daniels appeals the denial of his motion for new trial, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence and arguing that the trial court erred by requiring him to wear visible shackles during the trial, failing to merge his conviction for aggravated assault and armed robbery, and improperly instructing the jury on aggravated assault. For the reasons that follow, we affirm Daniels’s convictions in part, vacate his aggravated assault conviction and sentence, and remand the case for resentencing. Viewed in favor of the verdict,4 the record shows that Chearica Gardner was working at a Time Saver convenience store in Bulloch County on March 6, 2006. A masked man with a gun entered the store and climbed onto the counter. Gardner walked over to him with her hands raised, and the man demanded money, fired the gun into the air, and said, “I’m not playing with you.” He then shot her in the arm, and Gardner gave him a money bag containing the store’s extra change. As Gardner unsuccessfully attempted to open the cash register, the gunman shot her in the head, and then left the store. Gardner described the gunman as approximately five feet and six or seven inches tall; she was unable to identify his race or any other characteristics because he was wearing a mask and gloves. Gardner was transported to the hospital, where doctors were able to extract the bullet from her head. The manager of the convenience store audited the register and determined that the gunman had absconded with approximately $200. The manager also gave the police a copy of the videotape of the robbery, which was subsequently shown to the jury during the trial.
On March 7, 2006, a man wearing a ski mask with aluminum foil under it and carrying a silver revolver and a bank bag entered a Quick Stop convenience store in Millen, Georgia. The man screamed at the cashier, pointed the gun at her, demanding that she put money in the bank bag, and told her, “I ain’t playing with you, bitch.” The man “pulled the hammer back two or three times,” but the gun did not fire. The cashier handed the man money from three cash registers and a money bag containing dollar bills, the man ran out of and behind the store, and one of the employees chased him. Daniels was apprehended shortly thereafter, lying on the ground near railroad tracks. Police recovered from Daniels a chrome-plated revolver, gloves, two bank bags full of money, a ski mask, and an aluminum foil mask.
