After a jury trial, Appellant Shannon Cade was found guilty of the malice and felony murder of Brittney Wells, aggravated assault, and concealing the death of another. The felony murder verdict was vacated by operation of law, and the trial court merged the aggravated assault count into the malice murder. The trial court sentenced Appellant to life imprisonment for malice murder and to a consecutive ten-year term for concealing the death of another. A motion for new trial was denied, and he appeals. 1. Construed most strongly in support of the verdicts, the evidence shows that the 17-year-old victim dated Appellant, who was the same age. On January 14, 2009, the victim was visiting Appellant at his mother’s apartment. Appellant’s mother was not at home, but Ha Vuong Ha was present. He was 14 years old, lived in the same apartment complex, and frequently visited Appellant’s apartment. Ha testified that Appellant told him that the victim threatened to charge them with rape. Appellant then choked the victim until she stopped moving. With some aid from Ha, Appellant removed the victim’s clothes, wiped her body down with Pine-Sol to remove fingerprints, tied a plastic bag over her head, wrapped her in a blanket, carried her outside, and placed her in the apartment complex’s dumpster.
Later that night, Appellant and Ha informed Thaddeus Cade Cade about choking the victim to death. Cade, who is Appellant’s cousin and also lives in the same apartment complex, checked the dumpster himself and called his sister, who immediately notified the police regarding the body in the dumpster. Appellant claimed that, before the victim’s death, she charged at him with a knife. However, he had no defensive knife wounds, and police were unable to find a knife. Ha testified that the victim did not threaten Appellant with a knife, though she had one. The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find Appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U. S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979; White v. State , 287 Ga. 713, 715-717 1 b, c 699 SE2d 291 2010.
