A jury found Jamerson Mangrum guilty of three counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated child molestation, and one count of rape, abandoning a dead body, concealing a death and tampering with evidence. The trial court entered judgments of conviction and imposed a life sentence for the felony murder with rape as the underlying felony, consecutive 30-year sentences for the aggravated child molestations, consecutive 10-year sentences for concealing a death and for tampering, and a concurrent 12-month sentence for abandoning a dead body. The rape was merged into the felony murder conviction, and the other two felony murder verdicts were vacated by operation of law. See Malcolm v. State , 263 Ga. 369, 372 5 434 SE2d 479 1993. The trial court denied a motion for new trial, and Mangrum appeals. 1. Construed most strongly in support of the verdicts, the evidence shows that Mangrum called and spoke to the 15-year-old victim at about one o’clock in the morning. An hour later, neighbors saw two vehicles, one of which looked like Mangrum’s vehicle, speed away from his house, proceed through a stop sign, and leave the subdivision on a road that dead-ends into Kemp Road in Cherokee County. Five hours later, the victim’s nude and burned body was found dumped near a bridge on Kemp Road, about a mile from Mangrum’s house.
Mangrum gave conflicting statements to the police about what happened after he spoke to the victim. He first said that he had not seen her and had gone to bed, but he later stated that he and the victim had sex at his house, after which he took her to a party and left her there. At trial, Mangrum testified to another version of events, denying that he had sex with the victim at his own house, but claiming that he took her to a friend’s apartment and had sexual intercourse with her there, but not oral or anal sex, and that he then left her at that apartment.
