Carter v. State

Jackson v. State, 262 Ga. App. 451 2003, is overruled to the extent it might be interpreted to hold that a witness's opinion testimony as to the identity of a person depicted in a video was admissible as a question of fact in circumstances in which the average juror could decide the issue for himself.

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Following an earlier mistrial, a Muscogee County jury convicted Cedric L. Carter of single counts of armed robbery OCGA § 16-8-41 and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime OCGA § 16-11-106. He was sentenced consecutively to confinement to serve fifteen years and to five years supervised probation, respectively. Carter now appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial, contending that the superior court erred in not allowing the prior testimony of Roderick McGee, a witness to the offenses at issue; erred in refusing to allow his mother and aunt to provide opinion testimony to the effect that he was not in the videotape of the crime scene; and that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions. Finding these claims of error to be without merit, we affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence shows that in the early morning hours of August 6, 2002, a Columbus area Chevron station was robbed by two men, one whose face was covered by a black “do rag” and the other whose face was covered by a white T-shirt. Store clerk, Natasha Moore, was familiar with both masked men, Carter principally by voice recognition and the way he walked in the store and accomplice Brandon Beaty as a frequent customer.

Moore testified that upon entering the store, the two assailants ordered the customers therein, three teenage boys, the oldest among them, Roderick McGee, age 17, to drop to the floor; Carter ordered Beaty to “spray” Moore’s face; both ordered her to open the cash register, Carter doing so at gunpoint; although unable to see, she ultimately complied; Beaty removed all the cash from the register, approximately $190; the two then fled the store; and Moore called 911. In other testimony, Moore indicated that Beaty had sprayed her with mace; that as the incident unfolded, she heard one of the boys ordered to the floor say, “Oh man, we know you, Ced;” and that the man she believed to be Carter turned to him and responded, “You don’t know me man. You don’t know me.”

Carter v. State

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