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Final Copy 288 Ga. 263

S10A1301. ALLEN v. THE STATE. HUNSTEIN, Chief Justice. Kareem Allen was convicted of the murder of Shamar Edwards and the aggravated assaults of Donald Jumper, Amber McAdory, Patrick Edwards and Quintisha Page. He appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial,1 challenging the trial court's denial of his motion to sever his trial from that of his

The crimes occurred on July 25, 2004. Allen was indicted December 14, 2004 with Raymond Brown, Adrian Lamar and James Thomas in Fulton County. Allen was charged with murder, felony murder, seven counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, carrying a pistol without a license, carrying a concealed weapon, two counts of influencing a witness and two counts of terroristic threats. A misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana was nol prossed. Allen was tried with his co-defendants. At the close of the State's case, the trial court granted Allen's motion for a directed verdict of acquittal as to one aggravated assault count and the two influencing witness counts. On October 2, 2006, the jury acquitted Allen of the two terroristic threat counts, the three firearm counts and one aggravated assault count and found him guilty of murder, felony murder, and five counts of aggravated assault. He was sentenced January 31, 2007 to life imprisonment for malice murder, five years for the Count 4 aggravated assault to run consecutive to the life sentence and three five-year sentences for the Counts 7, 8 and 9 aggravated assaults to run concurrent with Count 4 and consecutive to the life sentence. The remaining counts were merged or vacated. Allen's motion for new trial, filed February 6, 2007 and amended December 9, 2008, was denied in an order filed December 21, 2009. A notice of appeal was filed January 8, 2010. The appeal was docketed for the April 2010 term in this Court and was orally argued July 5, 2010.

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co-defendants, the denial of his special demurrer, various other rulings and the failure to give certain jury instructions. Finding no reversible error, we affirm. 1. Construed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence adduced at trial established that appellant and his co-defendants, Thomas, Lamar and Brown, came uninvited to a large teen party hosted by Ramona Barnes at her home on Baywood Drive, which was located two houses north of the home of appellant's mother. Appellant was seen at the party holding a handgun. After a disagreement arose between appellant and some of Barnes's invited guests, appellant and his co-defendants were asked to leave. Before they left appellant was overheard making threatening statements, including that he would "shoot this whole [obscenity] party up." Shortly thereafter, as the remaining guests were beginning to leave, multiple shots were fired in the direction of the unarmed victims who were in the front yard of Barnes's home. Shamar Edwards was shot in his leg; then, as he tried to run away, he was shot a second time in the back, fatally wounding him. Based on the location of the spent shell casings, the shots were fired from the street in front of appellant's mother's home where appellant and his co-defendants were standing, armed with one and possibly two guns; appellant was seen there at the time of the shootings by witnesses who
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either knew him already or identified him subsequently. After the shootings appellant went into his mother's house but shortly thereafter re-emerged wearing different clothing. Witnesses at the scene identified appellant as being involved in the shooting to police officers; after his arrest, appellant threatened to kill several witnesses. Appellant introduced the testimony of six witnesses2 who said that appellant was not standing with his co-defendants but was instead arguing with his mother in her front yard when a co-defendant in the street in front of appellant's mother's home fired the shots at the victims. "It is the role of the jury to resolve conflicts in the evidence and to determine the credibility of witnesses, and the resolution of such conflicts adversely to the defendant does not render the evidence insufficient. [Cit.]" Brooks v. State, 281 Ga. 514, 516 (1) (640 SE2d 280) (2007). The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of murder and aggravated assault. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). His conduct before, during and
The witnesses were neighbors Michael Jones, Dwayne Reid, Carolyn Sutton, her son James Quincy Sutton and her son-in-law Taurus Jackson, as well as her brother Glen Sutton, who was visiting that evening. 3
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after the crimes supported the finding that he was a party thereto, notwithstanding the jury's acquittal of appellant on the three weapons charges. OCGA

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