Zachery v. State

A jury found Lakeisha Zachery guilty of obstruction of a law enforcement officer, a violation of OCGA § 16-10-24 a, a misdemeanor offense. Zachery appeals from the denial of her motion for new trial. In her sole enumeration of error, Zachery contends the trial judge erred when he denied her motion for directed verdict of acquittal. Finding no error, we affirm.

In reviewing a trial court’s denial of a defendant’s motion for directed of acquittal, an appellate court applies the “sufficiency of the evidence” test of Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979. Moore v. State, 273 Ga. 11, 12 1 537 SE2d 334 2000. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence shows the following. On June 2, 2001, Officer D. M. Vagnini of the DeKalb County Police Department responded to a 911 call at 1908 Pennington Place. When Officer Vagnini arrived, Jeffrey Thompson was standing in the driveway; he directed her to his brother, Kirby Thompson, who was at the top of the driveway demolishing J. Thompson’s car. As Officer Vagnini attempted to calm K. Thompson down, K. Thompson started running down the driveway toward his brother threatening to kill him. Officer Vagnini was unable to restrain K. Thompson as he kept breaking free. Back-up officers arrived, and Officer Vagnini and three other officers were able to subdue and hand-cuff K. Thompson. Officer Vagnini and Officer A. S. Lewis both testified that during the struggle to subdue and handcuff K. Thompson, Zachery and another female started yelling and attempted to pull Officer Vagnini off of K. Thompson’s legs by grabbing and pulling Officer Vagnini’s shirt and arms as the officer sought to stop K. Thompson’s kicking.