Following a jury trial, Terrence Raymone White was convicted of felony murder, theft by receiving stolen property, and various other offenses in connection, primarily, with the shooting death of Mark Freeman.1 White appeals, contending, among other things, that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction for theft by receiving stolen property, and that his trial counsel was ineffective. For the reasons that follow, we reverse White’s conviction for theft by receiving stolen property, but affirm his remaining convictions. 1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the record shows that, on September 17, 2004, police responded to a call at the Economy Inn on Moreland Avenue. In room 110, police found Mark Freeman dead from multiple gunshot wounds, with his pants pulled down, and with a partially burnt cigarette in one hand. A confidential informant who lived at the motel informed police that White, a.k.a. “Snake,” along with his girlfriend, Sherrie Witten, and Cory Kindell, had left the scene in a blue Ford Crown Victoria.
Testimony at trial revealed that White, a convicted felon who was at the Economy Inn to sell prostitutes and drugs,2 had previously hidden a gun in the wall of room 110. When White found that the gun was missing from its hiding place on September 17, 2004, he suspected that Freeman, who had purchased cocaine from him earlier in the day, had stolen it from him. White went to retrieve Freeman from an upstairs room, but before doing so told another person in room 110 to make sure that Witten did not leave the room while he went to retrieve Freeman. White dragged Freeman to room 110 and asked him where the gun was. White told Freeman to pull his pants down, and when Freeman refused, another man in the room hit Freeman in the head with a gun. Freeman then began to pull his pants down. White left the room to make a phone call to Kindell, telling him to come and pick him up and to bring a twelve-gauge shotgun so that White could “spray everybody in the room.” While White made his phone call, Witten and Freeman were made to stay in the room.
