Darryl White was tried by a Mitchell County jury and convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer.1 White argues on appeal that he was deprived at trial of the effective assistance of counsel because his trial lawyer failed to file a motion to suppress certain evidence found on his person when he was arrested. He also claims that the evidence adduced at trial is not sufficient to sustain his convictions and that the court below erred when it denied his request to charge on a lesser included offense, when it denied his motion to strike a juror for cause, when it allowed a forensic chemist to opine that the substance found on his person was, in fact, cocaine, and when it allowed a police officer to opine that powder on digital scales found on his person appeared to be cocaine residue. We find no merit in these claims of error and affirm the judgment below. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,2 the evidence adduced at trial shows that two police officers saw White walking in the “middle of the northbound lane” of a Pelham street at 2 a.m. One officer said that White was “staggering and stumbling.” Concerned for the safety of both White and any motorist who might be traveling on the same street, the officers stopped their car and approached White. As they approached him, they noticed a plastic cup in his hand and the odor of alcohol on his breath. When the officers smelled the contents of the plastic cup, they detected an even stronger odor of alcohol. The officers then decided to arrest White for unlawfully walking upon the roadway3 and for unlawfully walking upon a roadway while under the influence of alcohol.4 When the officers attempted to arrest White, he tried to run away. A struggle ensued, during which White kicked and bit the officers. After the officers subdued White, one searched White and found digital scales and a bag containing what appeared to be cocaine in the pockets of his pants. A third officer, who worked with the local drug task force, arrived on the scene after the arrest and conducted a field test of the contents of the bag, which indicated the presence of cocaine. The bag subsequently was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for scientific analysis of its contents, which confirmed that the substance in the bag was cocaine.
1. We turn first to the contention that White was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel because his lawyer did not move to suppress the evidence discovered as an incident of his arrest. White says that the officers had no reasonable suspicion that he was engaged in criminal wrongdoing when they first approached him, and for this reason, he argues, evidence obtained when he was arrested is the fruit of an unlawful seizure and would have been suppressed, if only his lawyer had filed a motion to suppress. We disagree.
