Ladaris Hawkins was found dead in a College Park hotel room on October 15, 1998, having suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the back of his head. Three days later, Phillip Dover, Ronald Gutkowski, and Gerrold Shropshire were found dead in an Atlanta hotel room, each having suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the back of his head. About two weeks after the trio was killed, appellant Timothy Dawson was stopped for a traffic violation near Memphis, Tennessee. When appellant told the officer he had a loaded gun in the glove compartment, a weapons violation in Tennessee, the officer obtained appellant’s consent to search the vehicle and retrieved the gun. Appellant was arrested for the weapons violation and, during a search of the vehicle following appellant’s arrest, officers recovered identification documents belonging to the four men murdered in Fulton County. Appellant was tried and convicted for the murders in Fulton County.1 1. The State presented expert evidence that the gun found in appellant’s car was the weapon which had fired the shots that killed the four men, and the baseball cap appellant was wearing at the time of his arrest contained the DNA of one of the victims. The State also presented evidence that appellant and two friends used the Atlanta hotel victims’ tickets, at appellant’s invitation, to attend a professional football game the day after the three victims were killed; appellant was identified as the person seen in a hotel surveillance tape in the hotel elevator with one of the victims shortly before the trio of victims was shot, and as the person leaving the hotel with a cooler belonging to one of the victims; and a duffle bag belonging to one of the victims was on the seat of the car appellant was driving at the time of his arrest. The evidence was sufficient to authorize the jury to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of all the charges. Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979.
2. Appellant contends the trial court erroneously prohibited him from presenting evidence that the murders were actually committed by a drug-dealing gang who planted evidence incriminating appellant in retaliation for appellant having purportedly “snitched” on one of the gang members who was allegedly dealing drugs in a local jail with the complicity of deputy sheriffs.
