Appellant Zyderrious Platt was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, feticide, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm for the October 3, 2009, shooting death of his pregnant wife Jelani Platt.1 Appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to authorize the jury to find him guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, of the crimes for which he was convicted. For reasons stated below, we affirm appellant’s convictions.
The evidence construed in favor of the jury’s verdict showed that on October 3, 2009, the victim’s mother became concerned when the victim failed to pick-up the victim’s nephew that morning to take him to his football game, failed to appear at the nephew’s football game, and failed to return her mother’s texts and voice messages. The victim’s mother went to the victim’s apartment and spoke with appellant. Appellant told the victim’s mother that the couple had an argument over rent money the night before, that he left the apartment, and, when he returned, the victim was not at home. The mother briefly looked around the couple’s apartment, but did not see anything unusual. The victim’s mother then went to the home of the victim’s friend who advised that she had dinner with the victim the night before and drove her back to the Platts’ apartment around midnight. The victim’s mother then called the police to report the victim as missing. Responding to the mother’s report, a patrol officer arrived at the victim’s apartment and spoke to appellant and the victim’s mother. Appellant repeated to the officer the same story he gave to the victim’s mother. Later that afternoon, a police officer observed appellant place a trash bag into the dumpster. The officer retrieved the trash bag and found a 9mm handgun wrapped in a towel. The police then arrested and jailed appellant for possessing a weapon as a convicted felon. The police subsequently executed a search warrant of the Platts’ apartment where they discovered the victim’s car keys, identification, and wallet in a dresser drawer under some clothes.
