Appellant Richard Hatcher appeals his conviction for the May 2007 murder of Joseph Brooks. Finding no error, we affirm.1 1. Construed most strongly in favor of the verdict, the evidence adduced at trial established the following. On the evening of May 4, 2007, appellant and victim Joseph Brooks were drinking beer and smoking crack cocaine in the company of Harvey Bender and Dolores Bennett at the rooming house in Augusta where the latter three lived. In the early hours of May 5, appellant gave Brooks ten dollars with which to buy more crack cocaine, and Brooks took appellant’s car to make the purchase. Some time after Brooks had left, Bender went outside and noticed appellant’s car in the yard with the doors open and the lights on. Bender called out to Brooks but received no response; Bender went back inside and relayed this information to appellant. Appellant went outside, then came back inside, appearing upset, and told Bender to “give him his board,” stating that he wanted “his money or his stuff.” Bender handed appellant a piece of wood that appellant had been storing under Bender and Bennett’s bed “in case somebody was bothering him.” Appellant went back outside, and Bender heard a loud thump. A few minutes later, appellant came back inside and told Bender to get some water because he had knocked Brooks out. After Bender threw water on Brooks and failed to rouse him, appellant and Bender went back out to the car, retrieved Brooks, and carried him to his room, where Bender tried to clean the victim with a towel. Bender noticed that Brooks’ flesh was cold and that he was unresponsive, and he called 911. By the time the police arrived, appellant had left.
When initially interviewed by police that morning, Bender did not implicate appellant and told police only that someone had hit Brooks over the head in the rooming house parking lot. After the initial interview, Bender learned that Brooks was dead. In a second interview approximately two hours after the first, Bender described in detail the events of the evening and appellant’s involvement therein. Bender testified that he had attempted to cover for appellant in the initial interview because “he’s a soldier and I’m a soldier” and he was “trained to have his back.” He also testified that, before he knew Brooks had died of his injuries, he viewed the incident as “the way the street thing go,” in other words, “if you get beat up for losing somebody’s drugs, you get beat up.” Once he realized Brooks was dead, Bender testified, he wanted to tell police the full truth.
