A jury found Gerald Keller guilty of driving under the influence and driving with an expired license. The trial court granted Keller’s motion for an out of time appeal. On appeal, Keller, acting pro se, asserts eight enumerations of error. He challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and argues that the trial court erred in: denying his motion for recusal; denying motions to suppress; requiring him to proceed pro se without warning him of the risk; intimating an opinion as to his guilt; and failing to give certain jury charges. He also contends he received ineffective assistance from his trial counsel.1 For reasons that follow, we affirm. 1. On appeal from a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict.2 The defendant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence, and “we neither weigh the evidence nor assess witness credibility, but merely determine whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain the conviction.”3 So viewed, the record shows that in the early morning hours of January 22, 2005, a clerk at a gas station saw a vehicle enter the lot and park next to a gas pump. The vehicle remained parked next to the pump for between an hour and two hours. The clerk saw only the driver in the vehicle, and he never exited the vehicle. The driver appeared to be “slumped over” the steering wheel and was unresponsive when the clerk repeatedly attempted to speak to him through the two-way radio at the gas pump. Another gas station employee went out to the vehicle but was unable to get a response from the driver. The clerk then called 911.
Deputy Downey of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department responded to the call. Deputy Downey approached the vehicle to determine whether there was a medical emergency —”to check on the driver and make sure he’s breathing, make sure he didn’t have a heart attack or something like that.” He found Keller, the vehicle’s only occupant, “slumped over against the steering wheel.” After two or three attempts, he roused Keller, who was disoriented and unable to open the window. Deputy Downey asked Keller to open the vehicle’s door; when Keller complied, Deputy Downey smelled alcohol. As Keller stepped out of the vehicle, “he had to use the door to catch his balance,” and Deputy Downey smelled alcohol on him. Keller admitted he had been drinking, and his speech was slurred.
