Tony Hurst was convicted on two counts of malice murder for the stabbing deaths of Sara Hawkins and her nine-year-old son Christopher Willis. He appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial1 and, finding no error, we affirm. 1. The evidence authorized the jury to find that Hurst lived with Teresa Smith in Apartment D of a building comprised of four two-story units; Hawkins lived next door in Apartment C. Hurst left his apartment on the night of November 27, 2002 to buy some beer, but did not return. The following morning, Hawkins’s 11-year-old son Joseph Willis, with his younger brother Christopher in tow, knocked on Smith’s door, shouting for her to call 911 because a man was “messing with his mama.” Smith went next door to investigate and found Hawkins in an upstairs bedroom, slumped on the floor against the wall and covered in blood. Hurst was also in the bedroom, holding a large kitchen knife and a broken BB gun. He told Joseph, who had remained at the bottom of the stairs, to “come look at his mama” and said to Smith that Hawkins “had it coming.” Smith and Joseph ran to a neighboring apartment complex and called police. At some point, Christopher had become separated from the two.
Police surrounded the apartment building and called on Hurst to surrender. A SWAT team entered Apartment C and found Hawkins and Christopher in the upstairs bedroom; both had bled to death from stab wounds. A broken BB gun and a bent, bloody knife blade were in the room. There was a large hole in the bedroom ceiling, and insulation and drywall were strewn on the floor. In the hallway, a ceiling panel leading to the attic, which connected all four units of the building, was missing. Searching the remainder of the building, police found Hurst in Apartment B with cuts on his hands and arrested him. Hurst’s blood was found in both Apartments B and C, as well as the attic space in between the two units; his blood, together with that of the victims, was found on Hurst’s clothing, the knife, and numerous other items. A bloody fingerprint on the wall above Hawkins’s body matched that of Hurst, as did a latent fingerprint on the attic ceiling panel for Apartment B.
