The appellant, Stanley Brooks, appeals from his convictions for the malice murder of Wilmer Walters, for the aggravated assault of Kelvin Terrell, and for the possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.1 On appeal, Brooks contends, among other things, that his constitutional right to a speedy trial was denied and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. Finding no merit to Brooks’s contentions, we affirm. 1. Kelvin Terrell lived with his mother, Patricia Terrell, in a house on Hills Avenue in Atlanta. In the early morning hours on October 19, 2004, he left his house and walked about fifty feet to a nearby corner store to get some food. As Terrell neared the store, he walked between a man walking in the street near the corner store and another man, Wilmer Walters, who was leaning against the store. The two men were facing each other, and Terrell spoke to them. Just as Terrell passed the men, he heard six to eight gunshots and turned and saw the man leaning against the store fall to the ground. When Terrell looked back, he and the shooter looked each other in the face under the street lights. The man then pointed the gun at Terrell’s head, prompting Terrell to run. The man fired several shots at Terrell, and two shots struck him in the back. Terrell, however, was able to run into the corner store. People who were in the store had heard the shots and locked the door after Terrell entered. At trial, Terrell stated that he got a good look at the shooter’s face, and he testified about his identification of Brooks as the shooter in a pre-trial photographic lineup. Terrell also identified Brooks in court as the man who shot him and Walters. Walters died from gunshot wounds to the torso.
Patricia Terrell testified that she advised her son against going to the store in the early morning hours on October 19, 2004, but that he left the house anyway. Shortly after Kelvin left the house, Ms. Terrell heard gunshots and went to her front porch. She saw a man stop immediately in front of her house and put a gun in his clothes. The man then went to a church near her house, and a red SUV left the church parking lot at a high rate of speed. Later, Ms. Terrell picked Brooks out of a photo lineup containing six photographs. She could not, however, identify Brooks in court. Mikel Gillam, who was at Ms. Terrell’s house at the time of the shooting, also said a man with a gun stopped directly in front of the house, stuck a gun in his clothes, ran down the street, and sped away in a red SUV.
