Following a bench trial, Thaddeus Jennings appeals his conviction on two counts of false imprisonment1 and on single counts of aggravated assault,2 aggravated sodomy,3 rape,4 armed robbery,5 and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.6 He challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and argues that the trial court erred in several evidentiary rulings. Discerning no error, we affirm. 1. When reviewing a defendant’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and the defendant no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence. Short v. State .7 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. Jackson v. Virginia .8
So viewed, the evidence shows that on October 27, 2001, Jennings and a compatriot approached an apartment residence of a friend of Jennings who Jennings believed owed him money; a nearby witness saw them bearing arms. When they entered the apartment, an eleven-year-old witness in the apartment recognized Jennings and saw he had a gun. An adult female in the kitchen of the apartment was on the phone; the two men ripped the phone off the wall and put a gun to her head, causing her to leave. The two men then entered the apartment’s bedroom, where Jennings’s friend Harold Norris and Norris’s girlfriend were in bed. Announcing that he had found his prey and that he had come to “get blood” and money, Jennings pointed a gun at Norris and told him that he intended to kill him. Jennings then demanded that the girlfriend submit to sex acts or else he would shoot Norris. Keeping the gun trained on Norris, Jennings instructed the girlfriend to perform oral sex on the compatriot, with which instruction she complied. After threatening to shoot Norris and his girlfriend, Jennings handed the gun to the compatriot and announced that it was his turn; while the compatriot kept the gun trained on Norris, Jennings took the girlfriend to the kitchen, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and also forced her to engage in sexual intercourse with him.
