A jury found David Brown guilty of malice murder. The trial court entered judgment of conviction and sentenced Brown to life imprisonment. Brown filed a motion for new trial, which the trial court denied. Brown appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction. Construed most strongly in support of the verdict, the evidence shows that Brown and Kawaski Johnson had an argument while standing in checkout lines inside a Wal-Mart store. A surveillance camera videotape admitted into evidence shows that Johnson left the store first and Brown followed him, putting the bag of items that he had just purchased on the floor before going out the door. The videotape shows that immediately after he left the store, Brown jumped on Johnson from behind and stabbed him with a knife multiple times. Johnson got away from Brown, ran to his car and drove away from the store. Some time later, Johnson drove his car off the roadway, went through a ditch and hit a mobile home. A police officer responded to the accident scene and found Johnson unconscious in the car. Emergency medical personnel arrived and transported Johnson to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, and a doctor discovered stab wounds on his body. The medical examiner subsequently determined that the cause of Johnson’s death was a stab wound to his chest that penetrated his heart and his left lung. Later on the day of the killing, Brown went to the police station and admitted to a detective that he had cut Johnson with his knife, but claimed that he did so only after Johnson first threatened and attacked him. Brown also gave the detective the knife that he used to stab Johnson.
Brown contends that there is insufficient evidence of malice because his statement to the detective that Johnson was the aggressor was not refuted by any other testimony. A person commits the offense of murder when he unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or implied, causes the death of another human being. Express malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take the life of another human being which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof. Malice shall be implied where no considerable provocation appears and where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart. OCGA § 16-5-1 a, b. “Whether a killing is intentional and malicious is for the jury to determine from all the facts and circumstances. Cit.” Oliver v. State , 276 Ga. 665, 666 1 581 SE2d 538 2003.
