Charles Eldridge was convicted by a jury of two counts of aggravated assault. He appeals following the denial of his motion for new trial. Taffee Lashonda Wright testified that around 6:30 a.m. on September 1, 2003, she was traveling down Highway 49 towards Fort Valley, Georgia with her eight-year-old daughter, who was in the backseat, when she noticed a car pull along side her. Wright heard a “popping” sound, and her daughter started screaming, “Fire, fire, I’m burning, I’m burning”. Wright looked in her rear view mirror to see what was wrong with her daughter, and noticed the car that had been traveling beside her swerve, straighten up and then start following her. Wright testified that the car would speed up when she sped up, and at one point the hazard lights were turned on. However, a short distance later the car turned off onto another road, and Wright was able to look at her child and saw that there was blood on her back. It was later determined that the child had been shot, and bullet fragments were recovered from her clothes.
Jackie Cooper, the Chief of Police for the City of Roberta, Georgia, testified that on September 1, 2003, shortly after 7:00 a.m., he received a call concerning a suspicious person at Haddock’s Grocery store. When Cooper arrived at Haddock’s, he observed a 1997 Oldsmobile sitting at the gas pump. Cooper asked the driver of the car, who he identified at trial as the defendant Charles Eldridge, for his driver’s license and insurance information. The driver’s license and insurance were valid, but Cooper noticed the car did not have a vehicle tag. Eldridge told Cooper that the tag had been lost but provided him with a tag number. Cooper allowed Eldridge to leave, and then called in the tag number. The tag came back as belonging to another vehicle, so Cooper proceeded to drive in the direction he observed Eldridge go in an attempt to intercept him. A short while later, Cooper saw the car Eldridge had been driving on the side of the road. The car door was open, and Eldridge was standing in front of the car. Cooper stopped and got out of his car and began walking towards Eldridge. As he passed Eldridge’s open car door, he observed a silver semiautomatic weapon between the seat and the driver’s door. Eldridge told Cooper the gun belonged to his wife, and Cooper picked it up for his safety while he was questioning Eldridge. Eldridge told Cooper he was sleepy from driving all night, and that was why he gave him the wrong tag number.
