Troutman v. State

A jury found Roderick Troutman guilty of armed robbery. Troutman appeals, alleging i the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict, ii the trial court erred in admitting evidence that he claims constitutes hearsay, and iii he received ineffective assistance of counsel. We find no error and affirm Troutman’s conviction. 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.1 Moreover, we do not weigh the evidence or determine 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.”2

So viewed, the record shows that at approximately 8:30 p.m. on March 22, 2006, a driver with Decatur’s Best Taxi Service was dispatched to pick up a fare at the Covington Walk Townhomes in DeKalb County. The taxi driver lived at those townhomes herself, and she recognized the two young men whom she picked up there as ones she had seen around the neighborhood. The men got in the back seat of the taxi, and after the taxi driver had driven a short distance, she felt one of the men grab her and put a gun to her neck. The taxi driver gave the men $65, and they began discussing whether she should drop them off at a cemetery or at an elementary school on a nearby dead-end street. Fearing that the men were going to harm her, the taxi driver crashed her car into another vehicle, and the men fled from her taxi in the general direction of a residence motel known as the Old English Inn.