In 2000, Lewis Cecil Gravitt, Jr. confessed to the Sheriff of Walker County that, ten years earlier, he killed Bryan Barnes by shooting him 14 times, and buried the body in a shallow grave on the Gravitt family farm. According to Gravitt, he did so in order to prevent a drug dealer, whom he refused to identify, from killing him and members of his family. This threat allegedly was made in retaliation for a theft of approximately $150,000 and a quantity of cocaine, in which the drug dealer erroneously believed that Gravitt and the victim participated. Recovery of the victim’s body and eleven bullets from the area identified by Gravitt constituted corroboration of the confession. He was charged with malice murder, an alternative count of felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and concealing the death of another. After a jury trial, Gravitt was found guilty of all counts. The felony murder count stood vacated by operation of law, and the trial court merged the aggravated assault count into the malice murder. Malcolm v. State , 263 Ga. 369, 371-374 4, 5 434 SE2d 479 1993. The trial court entered judgments of conviction on the remaining guilty verdicts and sentenced Gravitt to life imprisonment for malice murder, a consecutive five-year term for the firearm possession, and a concurrent ten-year term for the concealment offense. A motion for new trial was denied, and he appeals.1 1. When it is construed so as to support the verdict, the evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Gravitt guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979; Conaway v. State , 277 Ga. 422, 423 1 589 SE2d 108 2003; Luther v. State , 255 Ga. 706, 709 3 342 SE2d 316 1986.
2. Gravitt contends that the trial court erroneously refused to charge the jury on justification as his sole defense. Although he requested the suggested pattern jury instruction on self-defense and defense of others, Gravitt also relies on OCGA § 16-3-20 6, the omnibus provision of Georgia’s justification statute: “The defense of justification can be claimed . . . in all other instances which stand upon the same footing of reason and justice as those enumerated in OCGA § § 16-3-20 et seq.” See Tarvestad v. State , 261 Ga. 605 409 SE2d 513 1991 defendant was entitled to instruction on the defense of justification based on 16-3-20 6.
