¶1 NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and official text of the opinion.
¶2In the Supreme Court of Georgia
¶3 Decided: December 20, 2022
¶4 S22A1022. TURNER v. THE STATE.
¶5 BOGGS, Chief Justice.
¶6 Appellant Willie Lewis Turner II challenges his 2017
¶7convictions for malice murder and possession of a firearm by a
¶8convicted felon in connection with the shooting death of Travalas
¶9Acres. 1 Appellant contends that the evidence against him was not
¶10 1 The crimes occurred in the early morning hours of February 19, 2016. On November 2, 2016, a Coweta County grand jury indicted Appellant for malice murder, felony murder based on possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Appellant’s initial trial in May 2017 ended in a mistrial. At a trial from October 16 to 26, 2017, the jury found him guilty on all counts. The trial court sentenced him to serve life in prison for malice murder and a consecutive term of five years for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Although the trial court purported to merge the felony murder verdict for the purpose of sentencing, the felony murder verdict was vacated by operation of law. See Manner v. State, 302 Ga. 877, 890- 891 (808 SE2d 681) (2017). Appellant filed a motion for new trial on October 27, 2017, which was amended with new counsel on August 18, 2020. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on May 11, 2021, and denied the motion on October 29, 2021. Appellant filed timely notice of appeal. The case was docketed in this Court to the August 2022 term and was submitted for a decision on the briefs. credible and therefore was legally insufficient to support his
¶11convictions. However, when evaluating the sufficiency of the
¶12evidence to satisfy constitutional due process, we do not assess the
¶13credibility of the witnesses. When properly viewed in the light most
¶14favorable to the jury’s verdicts, the evidence at trial was sufficient
¶15to support Appellant’s convictions for malice murder and possession
¶16of a firearm by a convicted felon. Accordingly, we affirm.
¶17 1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the
¶18evidence at trial showed the following. In the early morning hours
¶19of February 19, 2016, Appellant was at an unlicensed neighborhood
¶20bar in Newnan with Acres, Jonathan Allen, and Jemelle Moss,
¶21Appellant’s cousin. Acres and Allen were good friends, but neither
¶22was friends with Appellant. Nor were Allen and Moss good friends,
¶23although Allen had used cocaine that night, which he purchased
¶24from Moss. At around 12:20 a.m., the four men decided to ride
¶25together to a bar in Atlanta. Before they left, Allen saw Moss hand
¶26Appellant a Taurus Judge .410-caliber revolver that Allen had sold
¶27Moss two weeks prior.
¶28 2 All four men got in Acres’ Kia Optima. Acres drove; Allen sat
¶29in the front-passenger seat; and Appellant and Moss sat in the
¶30backseat, with Appellant sitting behind Acres. As soon as the men
¶31got in the car, Moss asked Acres why he went to Moss’ mother’s
¶32house the previous night. Appellant suddenly joined in, demanding
¶33to know, “Man, why did you go over to my auntie’s house?” Appellant
¶34became increasingly hostile, eventually pulling out Moss’ revolver
¶35and pointing it at the back of Acres’ head. Moss intervened,
¶36Appellant put the gun away, and Acres started driving.
¶37 At 12:34 a.m., Acres missed a turn for the interstate, and
¶38Appellant pulled out Moss’ revolver and fired once into the back of
¶39Acres’ head, killing him instantly. The car crashed into a telephone
¶40pole in front of a bar, the Corner Tavern. The bar’s assistant
¶41manager and security guard called 911 and ran to the car, where
¶42they found Acres inside, unresponsive, with a bullet hole in the back
¶43of his head.
¶44 When the car crashed, Appellant, Allen, and Moss got out and
¶45ran in different directions. Moss called his girlfriend, who
¶46 3 immediately picked him up and took him home. Allen ran through
¶47the woods to an apartment complex, where he told someone to call
¶48911. The police came to the apartment complex, and Allen told them
¶49that he was in a car with his friend Acres, Appellant, and another
¶50man when Appellant pulled out a gun and shot Acres in the head
¶51from the backseat. Allen described Appellant but claimed he did not
¶52know the identity of the man sitting behind him (i.e., Moss), and he
¶53also falsely claimed that Moss had “dreads.” Allen was then taken
¶54to the police station, where he gave a video-recorded statement and
¶55said he could not describe Moss’ appearance.
¶56 Appellant called Amber Beasley, his child’s mother, and asked
¶57her to come pick him up at a gas station. Beasley went to the gas
¶58station, but Appellant did not show up. Beasley then went to the
¶59home of her friend Annabelle Florence to ask for help. Between 12:37
¶60a.m. and 3:11 a.m., Appellant and Beasley called each other 13
¶61times. During those calls, Appellant told Beasley that he was in the
¶62woods after shooting someone who tried to rob him. Upon realizing
¶63that Beasley was not going to pick him up, Appellant took off his
¶64 4 pants and shoes and hid them with his cell phone and Moss’ revolver
¶65in the woods near where the shooting had occurred.
¶66 At around 3:40 a.m., a police officer patrolling the area saw
¶67Appellant, who appeared to be very cold, walking down the road and
¶68wearing a camouflage jacket but no pants or shoes. The officer
¶69approached Appellant and noticed that he matched Allen’s
¶70description of the suspect. Appellant put his hands up and told the
¶71officer that he had been robbed. The officer arrested Appellant and
¶72drove him to the police station, where he gave a video-recorded
¶73interview after waiving his Miranda rights. Appellant claimed,
¶74among other things, that he was robbed at a nearby apartment
¶75complex, and he described the path that he allegedly walked from
¶76the complex to where he encountered the officer. A detective
¶77reviewed footage from city surveillance cameras along the path
¶78Appellant described but did not see Appellant on it.
¶79 Within days of the shooting, Allen asked Moss to pay him $200
¶80for not telling the police that Moss was in the car, and Moss paid
¶81him. Appellant also spoke with Moss and asked him not to talk to
¶82 5 the police, but on February 25, 2016, Moss went to the police station
¶83and gave a video-recorded statement. Moss said that after Acres
¶84missed a turn, Appellant shot Acres in the back of the head, the car
¶85crashed, and then the three surviving men fled the scene of the
¶86crash. Moss also stated that Appellant had pointed the gun at Acres
¶87earlier in the car ride but put the gun away when Moss intervened.
¶88 While in the Coweta County jail in April 2017, Appellant told
¶89Randarious Tenney, a fellow inmate and childhood friend, that after
¶90hearing an exchange between Acres and Allen after Acres missed
¶91the turn for the interstate, he believed that he and Moss were going
¶92to be robbed. Appellant said that he pulled out the gun and shot
¶93Acres in the back of the head, and he would have shot Allen if the
¶94car had not crashed. Because Appellant also owed Tenney money for
¶95a debt incurred while they were in jail together, Appellant told
¶96Tenney where to find the clothes he hid in the woods after the
¶97shooting, as Appellant had left cash with the clothes in addition to
¶98Moss’ revolver. Tenney turned this information over to
¶99investigators, who found Appellant’s shoes, phone, and pants, but
¶100 6 not the gun or cash. Once Tenney got out of jail, Appellant called
¶101and encouraged Tenney not to testify, and later threatened to hurt
¶102Tenney the next time he saw Tenney. Also while in the Coweta
¶103County jail, Appellant confessed to another inmate, Jacob Chapman,
¶104that he shot Acres in the head, and Chapman provided a video-
¶105recorded statement to police about that conversation. Appellant
¶106then called Florence to tell her to “stay out of it,” which she took to
¶107mean she should not testify at Appellant’s trial.
¶108 At trial, Allen testified that Appellant shot Acres in the back of
¶109the head after previously pointing the gun at him in the car. Allen
¶110also testified that he lied about not knowing Moss because he, as a
¶111convicted felon who sold Moss the gun used to shoot Acres, wanted
¶112to distance himself from Moss. Moss initially testified that he did
¶113not know anything about the shooting. However, after being told
¶114that the defense theory was that Moss shot Acres, Moss testified
¶115that Appellant shot Acres after previously pointing the gun at him
¶116in the car. Tenney testified about what Appellant told him while in
¶117custody in the Coweta County jail, but Chapman took the stand and
¶118 7 refused to testify, so the State played a video of his police interview.
¶119Florence testified that the night of the shooting, Beasley told her
¶120that Appellant shot someone. The State played a video of Appellant’s
¶121interview from the night of the shooting and entered into evidence a
¶122certified copy of Appellant’s 2013 felony conviction for terroristic
¶123threats. The medical examiner testified that Acres died by a gunshot
¶124wound to the back of the head caused by a .410-caliber shotgun shell
¶125being fired into the right side of his head from between three and six
¶126inches away. A trace evidence expert testified that fibers from the
¶127backseat of Acres’ car matched the camouflage jacket worn by
¶128Appellant that night.
¶129 Appellant elected not to testify in his own defense. In support
¶130of the defense theory that Moss shot Acres, Appellant called one
¶131witness who was not tendered as an expert and had no personal
¶132knowledge of the shooting or crime scene. The witness had
¶133photographed a Taurus Judge revolver being fired to document its
¶134recoil and helped defense counsel measure the circumference of a
¶135Kia Optima headrest.
¶136 8 2. Appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to
¶137support the jury’s verdicts because, even when viewed in the light
¶138most favorable to those verdicts, no rational trier of fact could have
¶139found Appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder
¶140and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. We disagree.
¶141 The proper standard of review for sufficiency of evidence as a
¶142matter of constitutional due process is whether any rational trier of
¶143fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable
¶144doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (99 SCt 2781, 61
¶145LE2d 560) (1979). This Court views the evidence in the “light most
¶146favorable to the verdict, with deference to the jury’s assessment of
¶147the weight and credibility of the evidence.” Hayes v. State, 292 Ga.
¶148506, 506 (739 SE2d 313) (2013) (citation omitted).
¶149 Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, a rational
¶150trier of fact could have found Appellant guilty on both counts. A
¶151person commits malice murder “when he unlawfully and with malice
¶152aforethought, either express or implied, causes the death of another
¶153human being.” OCGA § 16-5-1 (a). “Receiv[ing], possess[ing], or
¶154 9 transport[ing] a firearm” is a felony for a person “who has been
¶155convicted of a felony by a court of this state.” OCGA § 16-11-131 (b).
¶156Appellant does not dispute that his 2013 felony conviction for
¶157terroristic threats made his subsequent possession of a gun illegal.
¶158And numerous witnesses identified Appellant as having shot Acres.
¶159Moreover, the night of the shooting, Beasley told Florence that
¶160Appellant had shot someone after talking to Appellant on the phone.
¶161While in the Coweta County jail, Appellant confessed to Chapman
¶162and Tenney that he shot Acres, and he also told Tenney that the gun
¶163could be found with the rest of his possessions in the woods. The two
¶164other surviving occupants of the car, Allen and Moss, both testified
¶165that Appellant shot Acres, with the shooting happening at close
¶166range to the back of Acres’ head, a narrative supported by physical
¶167evidence. And Allen and Moss also both testified that Appellant had
¶168pointed the gun at Acres at least one other time in the car that
¶169evening. See Felton v. State, 283 Ga. 242 (657 SE2d 850) (2008)
¶170(finding evidence sufficient to support a malice murder conviction
¶171where the defendant pointed a gun at the victim, left, and then
¶172 10 returned and shot the victim). Appellant then pressured several
¶173people not to testify against him. See Flannigan v. State, 305 Ga. 57,
¶17462 (823 SE2d 743) (2019) (“In Georgia, ‘evidence of a defendant’s
¶175attempt to influence or intimidate a witness can serve as
¶176circumstantial evidence of guilt.’” (citation omitted)).
¶177 Although Appellant argues that Allen and Moss were not
¶178credible witnesses because they used drugs and lied at various
¶179points during the investigation, “it is axiomatic that resolving
¶180evidentiary conflicts and assessing witness credibility are within the
¶181exclusive province of the jury.” Graves v. State, 298 Ga. 551, 553 (783
¶182SE2d 891) (2016). Moreover, the evidence that Appellant shot Acres
¶183was overwhelming. Thus, the evidence was sufficient as a matter of
¶184constitutional due process for a rational trier of fact to have found
¶185Appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder and
¶186possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
¶187 Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.
¶188 11