A DeKalb County jury found Francis Aguey-Zinsou guilty of one count of trafficking in ecstacy,1 one count of possession of cocaine,2 one count of possession of marijuana,3 and one count of giving a false name to a law enforcement officer.4 On appeal, Aguey-Zinsou argues that the trial court erred by denying 1 his motion to suppress evidence, and 2 his motions for directed verdict and for new trial based on sufficiency of the evidence with regard to the drug counts. For the following reasons, we affirm. On appeal from a criminal conviction, the evidence must be viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, and the appellant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence. Moreover, on appeal, this court determines sufficiency of the evidence; we do not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility. The standard of review is whether, based on the evidence, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.5 Viewed in this light, the evidence shows that in the early morning hours of November 1, 2005, Officer James Bowie of the DeKalb County Police Department answered a call concerning a report of gunshots at Wood Terrace Apartments. Officer Bowie patrolled the complex for about 5 or 10 minutes, when he received another call regarding a suspicious person at Cameron Brook Apartments —a complex separated from Wood Terrace by a distance of 100 to 150 yards. Upon arriving at the building from which the suspicious-person call originated, Officer Bowie found Aguey-Zinsou , whispering into his cellphone in the building’s breezeway. Aguey-Zinsou identified himself as “Francois Josias,” and indicated he had been shot in the arm. Aguey-Zinsou also gave the officer a license number; neither the name “Francios Josias” nor the license number returned a match to a valid identification card. Aguey-Zinsou told Officer Bowie that two men had robbed him, and when questioned, he told the officer that he had not been to Wood Terrace Apartments. The officer called for an ambulance, and other officers arrived at the Cameron Brook scene. Thereafter, the officers returned to Wood Terrace to further investigate the discharged-firearms call, which they suspected was related to Aguey-Zinsou’s injury. At Wood Terrace, the officers found bullet casings, a pair of shoes laying in the breezeway of one of the buildings, at least one bullet hole, and a trail of blood leading up to Apartment 2025. The front door of the apartment had been forced open, and inside, the officers found a photograph of Aguey-Zinsou in one bedroom and a shoebox that contained marijuana, cocaine, ecstacy,6 and a letter addressed to Aguey-Zinsou in the other bedroom.
Aguey-Zinsou was arrested and charged based on the items in Apartment 2025. He moved to suppress the evidence, and the trial court denied the motion. The trial court also denied Aguey-Zinsou’s motion for a new trial, which he filed on the basis that the convictions were not supported by the evidence. This appeal followed.
