Johnson v. State

The defendant confessed that he was the masked gunman who accosted two employees, forced them into a business office and robbed a movie theater.

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A jury found Edward Kelly Johnson, Jr. guilty of two counts of armed robbery, three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. In this appeal, Johnson challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, the denial of his motion to suppress, and the admission of similar transaction evidence. Johnson also contends that the trial court erred by failing to charge the jury on identification and faults his trial counsel for providing ineffective assistance. On appeal, Johnson no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence and the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. Pollard v. State , 230 Ga. App. 159 495 SE2d 629 1998. So considered, at approximately 3:20 p.m., a man brandishing a shotgun and wearing a dark mask, accosted two female employees, Nataja Johnson and Yvonne McAfee, at the Riverdale Cinemas. Nataja Johnson testified that a gunman wearing a black shirt, jacket and mask, and black pants, pointed a shotgun at her and McAfee, her supervisor. At his direction, she put the cash from the box office in a brown bag that he supplied. Demanding additional money, the robber forced the two women at gunpoint into the business office where he directed Johnson to lie face down on the floor and McAfee to open the safe. While the robbery was underway, a United Parcel Service driver, Zachary Hightower, approached the office with a delivery. Hightower testified that a man wearing a ski mask and armed with a sawed off shotgun, “looked up when he saw me and pointed it directly at me and told me to get out.” Afraid he would be shot, Hightower “took off running.”

After Hightower fled, he saw the gunman, still wearing the ski mask, emerge from the front door of the theater and leave in a “white older Monte Carlo style car.” Hightower noticed that he was carrying a purple bag. Using his cell phone, he called police. He described the getaway car, its direction of travel and the location of the armed robbery.

Johnson v. State

The defendant confessed that he was the masked gunman who accosted two employees, forced them into a business office and robbed a movie theater.

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