A Clarke County jury found Freddie Lee Sheats guilty of possession of cocaine, OCGA § 16-13-30 a. He appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial, contending that his trial counsel was ineffective and that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence. Finding no error, we affirm. 1. Sheats, who was present in a home searched by police pursuant to a warrant, contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress 4.41 grams of cocaine found in his pocket during an allegedly illegal search of his person. “When reviewing the decision of the trial court on a motion to suppress, we construe the evidence most favorably to uphold the trial court’s findings and judgment, and if there is any evidence to support those findings, they will not be disturbed.” Underwood v. State , 266 Ga. App. 119, 120 596 SE2d 425 2004.
So viewed, the record shows that detectives and uniformed officers with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department executed a search warrant at 760 Dearing Street, Athens, on January 27, 2006. A detective obtained the warrant based upon numerous citizen complaints about drug sales at the home, eyewitness reports from a confidential informant about drug sales inside the home, and police surveillance of suspected drug activity outside the home. When executing the warrant, teams of police officers and detectives approached the house from the front and back doors almost simultaneously. As the police approached the front of the house, people sitting on the front porch ran inside the house. As a detective at the back of the house heard his fellow officers at the front ordering the occupants of the house to get down, he used a battering ram to force his way through the partially obstructed back door. As he did so, he heard a group of people running toward the back of the house, their footsteps resounding “like horses.” As the detectives and police entered through the back door, a detective saw one man darting around a corner and another, whom he suspected to be the last of the group, running toward him down the hallway. The police detained the man in the hallway and, concerned that the others might be destroying evidence, immediately handcuffed the rest of the occupants of the house, all of whom had fled into the back bedroom, where it appeared to a detective they had just “dove into locations” in the room. Sheats was with the men in the bedroom, lying face down on the floor. A detective searched Sheats and found 4.41 grams of cocaine in his pocket.
