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Stephens v. State

An officer found the defendant passed out behind the steering wheel of a parked vehicle with the engine running and the defendant failed a field sobriety test.

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Following a bench trial, Appellant Robert Wayne Stephens was convicted of one count of driving under the influence “DUI”-less safe driver OCGA § 40-6-391 a 1. Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the State’s evidence, contending that his conviction was based upon circumstantial evidence which failed to exclude every other reasonable hypothesis except that of his guilt. For the reasons set forth below, we find Appellant’s claim of error to be without merit and affirm. On appeal from a criminal conviction, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. Green v. State , 244 Ga. App. 565 1 536 SE2d 240 2000. We neither assess the credibility of the witnesses nor weigh the evidence, but instead determine only whether a rational trier of fact could have found each of the elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Stearnes v. State, 261 Ga. App. 522 1 583 SE2d 195 2003.

So viewed, the jury was authorized to conclude that at approximately 7:46 p.m., November 17, 2002, an East Ellijay patrolman received an all-points police radio dispatch directing him to be on the lookout for a possible drunk driver in a grey Lexus sport utility vehicle, bearing Georgia License Plate No. 17UY6. The patrolman spotted the vehicle “sitting half in a parking place and half in the driveway” of a Waffle King restaurant. The vehicle was running; its headlights were on; and Appellant was sitting behind the steering wheel, ” laid up against the window passed out.” The patrolman observed what he believed to be fresh vomitus on the driver’s side window. He knocked on the door and “ hollered” at Appellant to wake him up.

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