Kareem Allen was convicted of the murder of Shamar Edwards and the aggravated assaults of Donald Jumper, Amber McAdory, Patrick Edwards and Quintisha Page. He appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial,1 challenging the trial court’s denial of his motion to sever his trial from that of his co-defendants, the denial of his special demurrer, various other rulings and the failure to give certain jury instructions. Finding no reversible error, we affirm. 1. Construed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence adduced at trial established that appellant and his co-defendants, Thomas, Lamar and Brown, came uninvited to a large teen party hosted by Ramona Barnes at her home on Baywood Drive, which was located two houses north of the home of appellant’s mother. Appellant was seen at the party holding a handgun. After a disagreement arose between appellant and some of Barnes’s invited guests, appellant and his co-defendants were asked to leave. Before they left appellant was overheard making threatening statements, including that he would “shoot this whole obscenity party up.” Shortly thereafter, as the remaining guests were beginning to leave, multiple shots were fired in the direction of the unarmed victims who were in the front yard of Barnes’s home. Shamar Edwards was shot in his leg; then, as he tried to run away, he was shot a second time in the back, fatally wounding him. Based on the location of the spent shell casings, the shots were fired from the street in front of appellant’s mother’s home where appellant and his co-defendants were standing, armed with one and possibly two guns; appellant was seen there at the time of the shootings by witnesses who either knew him already or identified him subsequently. After the shootings appellant went into his mother’s house but shortly thereafter re-emerged wearing different clothing. Witnesses at the scene identified appellant as being involved in the shooting to police officers; after his arrest, appellant threatened to kill several witnesses.
Appellant introduced the testimony of six witnesses2 who said that appellant was not standing with his co-defendants but was instead arguing with his mother in her front yard when a co-defendant in the street in front of appellant’s mother’s home fired the shots at the victims.
