Keenan Stokes appeals his convictions for malice murder, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the fatal shooting of Michael Norby. He challenges the sufficiency of the evidence; the refusal to excuse certain jurors for cause; the reversal of a peremptory strike; the death penalty qualification phase of voir dire; the admission into evidence of another armed robbery; the refusal to suppress evidence of his alleged confession to law enforcement officers during his extradition to Georgia; a portion of the State’s closing argument; the effectiveness of his trial counsel; the fairness of his trial under the totality of the circumstances; and the denial of his motions for new trial as amended. Finding the challenges to be without merit, we affirm.1 The evidence construed in favor of the verdicts showed that on the night of November 21, 2002, Michael Norby was shot and killed at Heritage Bank in Midway, a victim of four gunshot wounds to the head and torso. Stokes had a relative who worked at the Dollar General Store near the bank. Stokes learned that Willie Bacon drove to the bank each evening to make the store’s night deposit. On the evening of November 21, Stokes, Randy Simmons, Samantha Faulk, and Marcus Gary conspired to rob Bacon as he made the night deposit, and the four drove to the bank; Faulk dropped off the three men at the bank. The men took an AK-47 assault rifle from the trunk of the vehicle. Stokes, Simmons, and Gary hid in various locations around the outside of the bank in order to ambush Bacon as he drove through the night deposit lane. Michael Norby drove up in a truck that resembled Bacon’s. Stokes yelled, “there he go right there.” Stokes emerged from the bushes and started shooting at Norby; he fired five to seven shots with the AK-47. After the shooting, the three assailants discussed what to do with Norby’s body. Stokes and Simmons took the body from the truck and dragged it, face down, to a nearby wooded area. The assailants then searched the victim’s truck looking for money, and found the victim’s wallet, checkbook, and rifle. They walked to a nearby motel and paged Faulk to pick them up. Before Faulk arrived, Stokes walked off and disappeared. Simmons and Gary returned to the bank to pick up the shell casings from the crime scene.
The AK-47 used to kill Norby was recovered during a later armed robbery committed by Simmons, Gary, and Faulk. Forensic evidence linked a bullet recovered from Norby’s body to that firearm. An enhanced video from the bank’s security system provided a corroborating visual account of the fatal shooting.
