Following a jury trial, Wayne Grant was convicted of aggravated assault, aggravated sexual battery, burglary and interference with governmental property. He argues on appeal that the trial court erred in denying his motion to exclude evidence of a pretrial identification by the victim; in admitting similar transaction evidence without first making the necessary legal findings; and in allowing a state’s witness to testify to certain statements made by Grant during the preliminary hearing. He further contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. For the reasons that follow, we affirm Grant’s conviction on interference with governmental property but remand this case to the trial court for additional proceedings consistent with this opinion. On appeal from a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to support the jury’s verdict, and the defendant no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence. We do not weigh the evidence or consider witness credibility, but only determine if the evidence was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find the defendant guilty of the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Footnotes omitted. Green v. State , __Ga. App.__, 1-2 Case No. A09A1632, decided Oct. 7, 2009. So construed, the evidence showed that on the evening of October 16, 2005, the victim heard a knock on the backdoor of her home. Immediately after opening the door, she was physically attacked by a man that she did not recognize, who began brutally beating and kicking her. The victim ultimately lost consciousness and, when she awoke, her vagina had been penetrated with a rolling pin. At some point during the attack, the perpetrator called the victim a “pig lover.”
The ensuing police investigation revealed that in the days before the attack, the victim had been involved in a conversation with her landlord and her neighbor, Renada Grant, appellant’s niece. During this exchange, the landlord had mentioned to Ms. Grant that the victim’s boyfriend was a police officer and that he would be residing with the victim and “keeping an eye on things.” On the day immediately prior to the attack, Ms. Grant’s live-in boyfriend was arrested on an outstanding bench warrant and Ms. Grant was charged with harboring a fugitive.
