Parks appeals his conviction of driving with a revoked license. Held:
1. Pursuant to OCGA § 17-7-110, appellant was furnished with a list of witnesses prior to trial containing the name of an employee of the Georgia Department of Public Safety (GDPS). At trial, however, the state substituted for this witness another GDPS employee whose name had not been listed. Appellant claims that the trial court erred in overruling his objection to the substitution. We disagree. The witness was qualified as a custodian of the records for the GDPS, and the primary purpose of his testimony was merely to authenticate appellant’s driving records. No harm is shown to have resulted from the substitution of one records custodian for another; and, under the circumstances, we hold that appellant was not unfairly surprised. See
Clark v. State,
2. Appellant contends that the GDPS witness in question was improperly allowed to testify as an expert concerning the legal validity in Georgia of a license issued by another jurisdiction to a person who has been declared an habitual violator in Georgia.
The indictment charged appellant with the felony offense of operating a motor vehicle after revocation of his license as an habitual violator. However, the jury did not find him guilty of that offense but
3. Appellant contends that the following jury instruction was unconstitutionally burden-shifting: “You may infer in this case, if you wish to do so, that the acts of a person of sound mind and discretion are the product of his will and you may also infer, if you wish to do so, that a person of sound mind and discretion intends the natural and probable consequences of his acts. Whether you make any such inference or inferences is a matter solely within the discretion of the jury.”
This instruction is, in essence, identical to the instruction recently approved by this court in
Heard v. State,
4. Appellant claims that the trial court erred in charging the jury that driving with a suspended or revoked license (OCGA § 40-5-121) was a lesser included offense of operating a motor vehicle after revocation of one’s license as an habitual violator (OCGA § 40-5-58). This contention is premised on the fact that the latter offense does not require proof that the vehicle was operated on a “public highway,” whereas the former one does.
“[A] crime [is] ‘included’ within another if, as a matter of
fact,
or ‘alternatively’ as a matter of
law,
the conditions stipulated by [OCGA § 16-1-6] [are] satisfied.”
Ramsey v. State,
5. Finally, appellant contends that the trial court incorrectly charged the jury that a resident or nonresident whose driver’s license had been suspended or revoked could not operate a motor vehicle in Georgia under a license issued by another jurisdiction until his Geor
Judgment affirmed.
