Appellant Bobby Leroy Brown was convicted of the malice murder of his wife, Roberta Brown, and two counts of tampering with evidence.1 On appeal, he challenges the sufficiency of the evidence presented against him, the denial of his motion to suppress evidence removed from his sister’s home, and the admission into evidence of a temporary protective order issued against appellant as well as an affidavit executed by the victim in support of her application for the protective order. 1. The State presented evidence that the victim was killed in the early morning hours of October 15, 2007, outside her Athens-Clarke County residence and near a vehicle registered in her name. She died as a result of craniocerebral trauma caused by blunt force inflicted by an object striking her at least fifteen times. A tree branch with blood on it that matched the victim’s DNA profile was found near the victim’s body. A neighbor who heard what she believed to be a beating saw a man wearing jeans and a light-colored t-shirt wipe the passenger side of the victim’s vehicle and carry two filled garbage bags from the vehicle. A police canine followed a trail from the garbage bags, which were left in the area, to the back porch of the nearby home of appellant’s sister, and police officers followed shoe impressions made in the dewy grass from the victim’s body to a spot near the sister’s home. Appellant’s sister told inquiring officers that appellant was taking a shower in her home. She permitted police to enter her home, and they placed appellant in custody. In a search of the home conducted after verbal and written consent was given by appellant’s sister, police seized a pair of red-stained tennis shoes from the bathroom where appellant had showered and, from a washing machine that smelled of bleach, a wet t-shirt, a wet pair of jeans, and a wet medical card and identification card bearing appellant’s name. The clothing matched the description given by the neighbor who saw a man wiping the victim’s car, and the bloodstains on one of the tennis shoes matched the DNA profile of the victim. There was evidence of prior police responses to emergency calls complaining of domestic disputes between appellant and the victim, with the police repeatedly unable to determine who was the primary aggressor in these incidents.
The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to convict appellant of malice murder and two counts of tampering with evidence by wiping the passenger side of the victim’s vehicle with a towel so as to alter or destroy physical evidence, and by bleaching and washing his clothing to destroy, alter, and conceal physical evidence. Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979. However, because appellant tampered with evidence in his own case and not to prevent the apprehension or prosecution of anyone other than himself, he was guilty of misdemeanor tampering and therefore could not receive the consecutive ten-year sentence imposed by the trial court. OCGA § 16-10-94c; White v. State , 287 Ga. 713 __SE2d__ 2010; English v. State , 282 Ga. App. 552 2 639 SE2d 551 2006. Accordingly, the sentences imposed for the tampering convictions are vacated and the case remanded for re-sentencing on those convictions. White v. State , supra, at Div. 1d.
