A DeKalb County jury convicted Larry Darnell Pace of armed robbery, OCGA § 16-8-41 a; kidnapping, OCGA § 16-5-40 a; and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, OCGA § 16-11-106 b. He appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial,1 contending the trial court erred in allowing the State to present evidence of a similar transaction and in admitting evidence of the eyewitnesses’ pretrial identification of him from a photographic lineup. Finding no error, we affirm. 1. Pace contends the trial court erred in admitting similar transaction evidence, arguing the prior incident was not sufficiently similar to the armed robbery for which he was on trial. Evidence of an independent offense or act may be admitted into evidence if the State makes the following affirmative showings: that it is seeking to introduce the evidence for a permissible purpose, there is sufficient evidence that the accused committed the independent offense or act, and there is a sufficient connection or similarity between the independent offense or act and the crime charged so that proof of the former tends to prove the latter. Williams v. State , 261 Ga. 640, 642 2 b 409 SE2d 649 1991; see U.S.C.R. 31.3 B requiring a hearing on the admissibility of similar transaction evidence and placing the burden of demonstrating admissibility on the prosecution. When deciding whether an independent offense should be admitted, the trial court’s proper focus is on the similarity, not the differences, between the offense and the crime for which the defendant is being tried. Anderson v. State , 261 Ga. App. 456, 461 3 583 SE2d 575 2003.
Prior to trial, the trial court conducted a hearing on the admissibility of the similar transaction evidence. The State showed that, in the instant case, Pace committed armed robbery by using a sawed-off shotgun to threaten a Family Dollar Store employee and steal the cash register till. Pace also used the gun to force the employee to move to a second cash register, which was empty. Pace took the employee’s cellphone and wallet before running outside and jumping into a stolen car driven by an accomplice. The State also showed that, in the prior robbery, Pace and an accomplice confronted a woman in a parking lot and pulled her from her car in broad daylight. After the accomplice pretended he had a gun and threatened to “blow her away,” Pace and the accomplice stole her car. A police officer apprehended Pace a few days later, after he wrecked the car. Pace has admitted stealing the car.
