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Watkins v. State

Evidence showing that the defendant was riding in a car with a gun hidden under a seat was sufficient to sustain his conviction for carrying a concealed weapon under OCGA § 16-11-126 a.

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On appeal from his conviction for aggravated assault and other crimes, Derrick Watkins argues that the charges as to carrying a concealed weapon and carrying a weapon without a license were not adjusted to the evidence and that the trial court erred when it charged the jury on accomplice testimony. We find no error and affirm. “On appeal from a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, with the defendant no longer enjoying a presumption of innocence.” Reese v. State , 270 Ga. App. 522, 523 607 SE2d 165 2004. We neither weigh the evidence nor judge the credibility of witnesses, but determine only whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a “rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U. S. 307, 319 III B 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979.

So viewed, the record shows that on the early morning of January 6, 2007, a man with a gunshot wound arrived on foot at a Rome hospital. He told police that he had been shot by a man who had been traveling with a woman in a dark-colored Dodge Intrepid. Shortly after issuing a BOLO, police stopped a blue Intrepid close to the scene of the shooting. In the car were Watkins and his co-defendant, Shannon Whatley, as well as a loaded .32 handgun hidden underneath the front passenger seat. Watkins smelled of alcohol. Both Watkins and Whatley were arrested.

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