Yisrael v. State

A jury convicted Abdiyel Yisrael of armed robbery,1 possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime,2 and possession of marijuana.3 Yisrael appeals, alleging that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict and that the trial court erred in charging the jury regarding eyewitness identification. We discern no reversible error and affirm. On appeal from a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and the defendant no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence.4 So viewed, the record shows that on July 19, 2004, an African-American man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and wielding a pistol robbed the Dairy Queen in Statesboro. The man appeared to be wearing a blond wig and was carrying a black purse or bag. He pointed his pistol at a Dairy Queen employee, demanded and received money from her, and fled across the street in the direction of the Summit Apartments.

Just prior to the robbery, two residents of the Summit Apartments were about to enter the apartment elevator when they noticed an African-American man on the elevator wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blond wig and carrying a black purse. The women were initially startled, but the man laughed and said, “Y’all know me. . . . I’m Pam’s friend.” The women realized that they knew the man as “Yisrael” and that he was a friend of Pamela Raymond, who often stayed at the Apartments with her aunt. Shortly after the women got off the elevator, one of them was looking out of the window when she saw Yisrael running toward the Apartments from the direction of the Dairy Queen.