DeKalb County jurors convicted Tyehimba Opio of two counts of aggravated sodomy, OCGA § 16-6-2 a 2; aggravated assault, OCGA § 16-5-21 a 2; and kidnapping, OCGA § 16-5-40 a. Opio appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial, contending that he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that the trial court improperly charged the jury. Finding no error, we affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,1 the evidence showed the following relevant facts. The victim testified that she met Opio in December 1999, and he gave her a note with a pager number and the name “Tye.” Two days after they met, Opio invited her to his apartment to celebrate his birthday. At the apartment, Opio started making pasta for dinner, and then he and the victim watched television. At some point, Opio went to the kitchen to check on the pasta, but, when he returned, he was holding a handgun. He told the victim to take off her clothes, then started hitting her in the face with the gun. Opio put on a condom and attempted to have intercourse with the victim, but was not able to. Afterwards, Opio told the victim to put on her clothes, and he forced her to go outside and into some nearby woods. Opio still had the gun, and he anally sodomized the victim and forced her to commit oral sodomy on him. He then left her in the woods, telling her that if she told anyone what happened, he would kill her.
The victim walked out of the woods and flagged down a car. She told the two men in the car that she had just been raped. They took the victim to a MARTA train station, and one of the men found a MARTA police officer. According to the MARTA officer, a man approached her at the station, pointed out the victim, and told her that he had seen the victim near some apartments and had stopped and offered his assistance. The officer testified that the man told her that the victim had told him that she had been raped at the Oak Tree Apartments. The man asked the officer to assist the victim and notify the police. The officer talked to the victim, who said that she had been raped, but that the two men were not involved in the assault. The officer then thanked the men for helping the victim and told them they could leave; the officer did not get the men’s names. According to the officer, the victim was “dazed and confused,” was trembling, had dirt on her pants, and had blood on the left side of her face and on her hands. The officer called for an ambulance and contacted the DeKalb County police. The victim told the MARTA officer and the DeKalb County detectives what had happened, described Opio, showed them the note with the name, “Tye,” and the pager number, and took the detectives to Opio’s apartment. The victim also identified Opio at trial as the man who assaulted her.
