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Final Copy 288 Ga. 545

S11A0345. REEVES v. THE STATE.

CARLEY, Presiding Justice.

After a jury trial, Jovan D. Reeves was found guilty of the malice murder of James Cuthbert, aggravated assault against Byron Polite, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. The trial court entered judgments of conviction on those guilty verdicts and sentenced Reeves to life imprisonment for murder and to consecutive terms of twenty years for aggravated assault and five years for each weapons offense. A motion for new trial was denied, and Reeves appeals.*

The crimes occurred on July 26, 2006, and the grand jury returned an indictment on October 25, 2006. The jury found Reeves guilty on September 26, 2008, and the trial court entered the judgments of conviction and sentences on November 7, 2008. The motion for new trial was prematurely filed on October 10, 2008, amended on June 2 and 17, 2009, and denied on July 23, 2010. Reeves filed the notice of appeal on August 2, 2010. The case was docketed in this Court for the January 2011 term and submitted for decision on the briefs.
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1. Construed most strongly in support of the verdicts, the evidence shows that sometime after 6:30 p.m. on July 26, 2006, while Polite was meeting in a vehicle with Cuthbert for the purpose of purchasing marijuana from him, Reeves appeared and suddenly fired several shots into the vehicle, resulting in Cuthbert's death and injuring Polite. During the shooting, Reeves was about four feet from the vehicle, was not wearing a mask, and looked directly at Polite, who recognized Reeves and knew him by the street name "Pig." Polite fled in a different vehicle driven by Benjamin Adams, who testified that Polite stated that he knew who shot him. A forensics officer worked with Polite to produce a composite sketch, which was later matched to Reeves by a detective who encountered him as the victim in an unrelated crime. Polite was subsequently shown a photographic lineup, became very upset, started shaking, and identified Reeves as the perpetrator. It was determined that Reeves was known as "Pig" and had multiple prior felony convictions. Reeves makes several attacks on Polite's credibility and argues that his identification was the only evidence linking Reeves to the crimes. "We do not determine the credibility of eyewitness identification testimony. Rather `the determination of a witness' credibility, including the accuracy of eyewitness identification, is within the
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exclusive province of the jury.'" [Cit.] OCGA

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