Veasley v. State, 312 Ga. App. 728

Veasley was convicted by Cobb County jury of burglary, felony obstruction, misdemeanor obstruction, giving a false name, and first-degree forgery.
Victims, at about 11:20 p.m. on March 15, 2009, saw a black male with stocking cap ring their doorbell and later observed a white pickup truck.
The same male returned with gloves; a crowbar was used to force the door; a plasma TV and other items were stolen.
Responding officers saw Veasley driving a matching truck; he fled, discarded the crowbar, truck key, driver’s license, and money as he ran.
Veasley was captured; he gave a false name, “Travis Williams,” which he repeated at the jail and on intake documents.
The truck contained the stolen TV, other electronics, gloves, caps, a wallet, and a notebook with Cobb County addresses and item valuations.
The trial court denied a directed verdict; on appeal, Veasley challenged sufficiency of the evidence and claimed ineffective assistance of counsel.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Was the evidence sufficient to convict Veasley of burglary?	Veasley’s guilt not positively placed at the scene.	Lack of positive placement defeats guilt; officers were lawfully discharging duties only if Veasley wasn’t the burglar.	Evidence, viewed most favorably, sufficed to support guilt.
Did Veasley receive ineffective assistance of counsel based on misidentification defense and directed-verdict strategy?	Counsel failed to present misidentification defenses and a targeted directed-verdict motion.	No prejudice shown; sufficient evidence; no reasonable probability of different outcome.	No prejudicial deficiency; trial court’s denial of new trial affirmed.

Robinson v. State, 277 Ga. 75 (2003) (prejudice element in ineffective assistance analysis)
Grant v. State, 307 Ga. App. 681 (2011) (circumstantial evidence standards; reasonable hypotheses for jury to resolve)
Chambers v. State, 288 Ga. App. 550 (2007) (evidence of recent possession may support burglary inference)