A jury convicted Mohamed Jamale a/k/a Omary Hagi of robbery by intimidation as a lesser included offense of one count of armed robbery OCGA § 16-8-41 and single counts of burglary OCGA § 16-7-1 and misdemeanor obstruction of a law enforcement officer OCGA § 16-10-24 a. Jamale appeals, contending that the trial court erred in i denying his motion for a directed verdict of acquittal as to the armed robbery and burglary counts; ii sentencing him upon his conviction of robbery by intimidation as a lesser included offense of armed robbery and upon considering that he possessed a firearm during the commission of the offenses notwithstanding his acquittal on all such counts; and iii denying his motions for a mistrial for prejudice arising out of the testimony of two of the State’s witnesses to the effect that he was incarcerated at the time of trial and rebutting a defense witness’ claim on direct that he had not spoken to him since the time of their arrest. Discerning no error, we affirm. On appeal, the standard of review for denial of a motion for directed verdict is the same as that for determining the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction. The issue . . . is whether, based on the evidence presented, a rational finder of fact could have found the accused guilty of the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt. Leaving the resolution of conflicting or contradictory testimony and the credibility of the witnesses to the jury, we construe the evidence in favor of the jury’s verdicts. In this regard, even though a witness may recant on the stand, his prior inconsistent statements constitute substantive evidence on which the jury may rely. Footnotes and punctuation omitted. Hash v. State , 248 Ga. App. 456, 457 1 546 SE2d 833 2001. This Court reviews the denial of a motion for mistrial for abuse of discretion. Underwood v. State , 218 Ga. App. 530, 534 3 462 SE2d 434 1995. So viewed, the evidence shows that on the night of July 28, 2005, Jibril Hersi appeared at Dipal Patel’s apartment to buy marijuana. Hersi gave Patel $40 and left the apartment, leaving the door partially open. Patel, in turn, went to his bedroom to get the marijuana that Hersi had purchased. When he returned to the living room of the apartment, Patel was met by Hersi, an unidentified third person, and Jamale as they came through the front door uninvited. Hersi and the third person who were armed with knives, and Jamale armed with a revolver, approached Patel directly whereupon the third person hit Patel in the face and then dragged him to the kitchen where he struck Patel again. While in the kitchen, Jamale held Patel at gunpoint as the third person took a cell phone from Patel’s pocket. Patel’s roommate, Antonio Ellis, then emerged from his bedroom, observed the commotion, and ran out the front door to alert a neighbor, off-duty State trooper C.E. Parker, of the situation. Jamale ran from the apartment in pursuit. Hersi, in the meantime, grabbed an X-Box gaming console and a jar containing the marijuana he had purchased and proceeded down the stairs from Patel’s apartment. There he was apprehended by Trooper Parker with the items he had taken. Subsequently, Trooper Parker and Sergeant Aubrey Epps of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, apprehended Jamale in the wood line adjacent to the apartment complex’s parking lot. Sergeant Epps searched Jamale and in his left front pocket, found a jar which contained a green leafy substance which later field tested positive for marijuana.
1. Jamale contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict of acquittal as to the armed robbery and burglary counts. We disagree.
