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Harris v. State

Evidence sufficiently corroborated the accomplice's testimony as to the defendant's participation in the armed robberies of two stores.

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Following a jury trial in the Superior Court of Clayton County, Rico Montez Harris was convicted of two counts of armed robbery, four counts of aggravated assault and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime. Harris challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, arguing that he was improperly convicted on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice.1 Because we find that the accomplice testimony was sufficiently corroborated, we affirm Harris’s convictions. “On appeal from a criminal conviction, the evidence must be construed in a light most favorable to the verdict and Harris no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence.”2 When evaluating the sufficiency of the evidence, the proper standard for review is whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.3 An appellate court does not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility.4

So viewed, the record shows that on January 10, 2008, at approximately 7:30 p.m., Harris, armed with a handgun, and his co-defendant, Michael Lynch, walked into a Family Dollar store with their faces concealed and approached two cashiers, Alayna McDonald and Patricia Ann Williams. Harris held the gun up to McDonald’s head, and said “baby girl, you know what time it is.” Understanding this to be a robbery, McDonald called the store’s assistant manager to the front of the store to obtain the keys to unlock the register. McDonald unlocked the register and handed its contents to Lynch, who was standing at the counter. The two men then fled the premises and the incident was reported to the police. The police took the witnesses’ statements, and then used a canine unit to track the defendants’ scent through the woods behind the store and into a nearby subdivision.

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