Appellant Bruke Tesfaye was found guilty of and sentenced for committing malice murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, kidnapping with bodily harm, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime.1 After reviewing the enumeration of errors set out by appellant, we affirm the judgment of conviction, but remand the case to the trial court for re-sentencing on the armed robbery conviction.
1. The State presented evidence that two men, one of whom was carrying a gun, entered a Fulton County liquor store in April 1997 and pushed a store employee into a walk-in cooler. One perpetrator removed money from the cash register while the other forced the store owner, Prem Sharma, into a back room where a safe was located. The keys to Sharma’s vehicle were taken from him, and he was beaten about his face and head and fatally shot in the chest. The two men drove away from the liquor store in the victim’s van and abandoned it several blocks away. Fourteen months later, appellant Bruke Tesfaye walked into the American embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, reported his involvement in a murder in a liquor store in Atlanta, and asked for assistance in returning to Georgia. While on the airplane from Ethiopia to the United States, appellant told the FBI agent accompanying him of his involvement in the crimes committed at the liquor store. Appellant repeated his story to another FBI agent who met the plane when it landed in the United States, telling the second agent he had taken approximately $340 from the cash register while his accomplice attempted to get the victim to open the store safe. At appellant’s trial, the two FBI agents and the embassy employee testified to what appellant had told them about his participation in the liquor store armed robbery that resulted in the death of Prem Sharma. In addition, a regular customer of the victim’s liquor store testified he saw two men, one of whom he identified as appellant’s co-indictee, just outside the liquor store the morning the owner was killed. While he could not identify the second man because he did not see his face, the witness stated the second man called the witness by name and, upon reflection, the witness realized from the man’s accent, walk, eyes, and association with the co-indictee, that the man was appellant. The evidence was sufficient to authorize appellant’s convictions. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979; OCGA § 16-2-20 party to a crime; Howze v. State, 201 Ga. App. 96, 97 410 SE2d 323 1991 if accomplice carries a gun, defendant need not have actual possession of the firearm to be found guilty of armed robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime; Clements v. State, 84 Ga. 660 1 11 SE 5051890 robbery occurs when perpetrators keep victim away from near-by site from which the victim’s property is taken.
