A jury found Jay Bradford guilty of numerous offenses, including aggravated assault, battery, armed robbery, theft by receiving, criminal damage to property, and fleeing to elude a police officer. On appeal, Bradford challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction for fleeing to elude a police officer. Bradford also contends that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel. For the following reasons, we agree that the evidence was insufficient to establish the offense of fleeing to elude and thus reverse that conviction. But as Bradford is unable to establish that he was prejudiced by his attorney’s alleged shortcomings, we affirm his remaining convictions. Viewed in a light favorable to the verdict,1 the evidence shows that during the night of February 28, 2005, Poksun Barker was leaving the business that she and her husband owned when she was accosted by two young men brandishing handguns who demanded her car keys. Although Mrs. Barker complied, one of the men nonetheless struck her with the handgun before the two fled in Mrs. Barker’s vehicle, a Nissan X-terra. Bleeding profusely from a head wound, Mrs. Barker entered the business and telephoned her husband. Mr. Barker arrived shortly thereafter and summoned the police.
The police responded, and a “be on the lookout” alert was broadcast for Barker’s vehicle. Approximately 40 minutes later, Barker’s X-terra was seen by Officer John Bailey, who turned his marked patrol car around to pursue the vehicle. The X-terra accelerated rapidly and ran a traffic light before the driver made a sudden left turn into an apartment complex. According to Bailey, he continued to follow the vehicle, although he did not activate his blue lights because he was waiting for back-up to arrive. The X-terra stopped, and three men fled the vehicle. Bailey ordered the men to stop, and both Bradford and another man, Christopher Frazier, complied. The third man, Raphael Ratliff, continued running but was discovered later that night, hiding underneath a building. Police discovered Barker’s credit card in Frazier’s pocket. Police also searched the X-terra, which had been damaged, and found a handgun on the front seat and the contents of Barker’s purse strewn across the back seat. A second pistol was located outside of the truck, next to the apartment building.
