A Clayton county jury found Trevor Dior Tolbert guilty of armed robbery, OCGA §16-8-41; and aggravated assault, OCGA §16-5-21. Tolbert appeals, contending that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress incriminating statements made during an allegedly illegal arrest and in denying his motion for a new trial based on juror misconduct. Finding no error, we affirm. 1. Tolbert contends the trial court erred in refusing to suppress his incriminating statements because those statements were made during an illegal arrest. Tolbert further contends that the detectives arrested him without probable cause when, during their investigation into a string of armed robbery attempts, they asked Tolbert to go to the police station to answer some questions and drove him to the station in the back of an unmarked police car. Tolbert also contends that an inculpatory statement he gave at the police station, after being advised of his rights to silence and to counsel was inadmissible because the statement followed that illegal arrest. Because the trial court sits as the trier of fact when ruling on a motion to suppress or a motion in limine, its findings based upon conflicting evidence are analogous to a jury verdict and should not be disturbed by a reviewing court if there is any evidence to support them. When we review a trial court’s decision on such motions to exclude evidence, we construe the evidence most favorably to uphold the findings and judgment, and we adopt the trial court’s findings on disputed facts and credibility unless they are clearly erroneous. Internal citations and punctuation omitted. State v. Tousley , 271 Ga. App. 874, 874 611 SE2d 139 2005.
Viewed in the light most favorable to the trial court’s findings, the record shows the following. In three separate incidents on May 12, 2006, two men in a burgundy Jeep Cherokee attempted to rob bank patrons, either using a gun or by forcing the victims’ cars off the road. The last victim was able to obtain the Jeep’s tag number and reported to police that the Jeep had South Carolina tag 876NVR. Detectives from the Clayton County police department searched vehicle registration records and discovered that the Jeep was registered to a woman in Stockbridge, Georgia. The detectives went to the current address on record, and found the burgundy Jeep with Georgia tags in the driveway with the South Carolina tag lying in the backseat. The Jeep’s owner answered the door and told the detectives that Tolbert, her boyfriend, was a driver of the Jeep.
