A Bartow County jury convicted Eric Alexander Perkinson of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of false imprisonment, theft by taking, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The jury recommended a death sentence for the malice murder conviction after it found three statutory aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt: that the offense of murder was committed by the defendant during the commission of an armed robbery and during the commission of a kidnaping with bodily injury; and that the murder was committed by the defendant for himself or another for the purpose of receiving money or another thing of monetary value. OCGA § 17-10-30 b 2, 4. Finding no reversible error, we affirm the convictions and sentences.1 1. On June 6, 1998, the victims, 17-year-old Dakarai Sloley and 16-year-old Louis Nava, drove Sloley’s aunt’s white BMW automobile to pick up Sloley’s dog from a dog groomer in Dekalb County. The dog was not ready so they returned to the parked BMW to wait. Eric Perkinson and an accomplice, Rico Wilson, entered the back seat of the car. At gunpoint, Perkinson and Wilson forced Sloley and Nava to drive to a nearby church parking lot. Perkinson, holding the gun, demanded and received cash from both victims. In the church parking lot, they rendezvoused with a green Toyota driven by two more accomplices who were Perkinson’s brothers. Sloley was made to sit in the front passenger seat of the BMW and Nava was forced into the BMW’s trunk. Wilson then drove the BMW north on I-75 for about 45 minutes to Bartow County while Perkinson remained in the back seat with the gun. The two accomplices in the Toyota followed. Sloley asked Perkinson and Wilson not to kill them and Wilson said they would not kill them. During the drive north, the Toyota briefly passed the BMW and Sloley observed the Toyota’s license plate. Wilson exited I-75 in Bartow County and Perkinson instructed him to drive the BMW to a wooded, secluded stretch of Paga Mine Road.
Wilson parked the BMW on the side of the dirt road and the Toyota stopped behind them. Wilson and Perkinson got out of the BMW and opened the trunk. Perkinson told Nava to get out and take off his shirt and shoes. Nava complied. Perkinson then marched Nava into the woods at gunpoint and shot him twice, killing him. Perkinson returned to the BMW, ordered Sloley to get out, and told him he was next. Sloley said, “I thought you weren’t going to kill us.” Perkinson replied, “You already saw our faces and you got the license plate on the Corolla.” While he was being marched into the woods by Perkinson, Sloley fled and Perkinson fired several shots, hitting Sloley in the left arm. Sloley fell down. Although the bone in his left arm had been severed by the bullet, he got to his feet after he heard the cars leaving and ran through the woods until he came to a road where he flagged down a pizza delivery driver. Police recovered the BMW and the Toyota within a short time and arrested Perkinson and his three accomplices. Sloley identified Perkinson both in a photo lineup and in court as the gunman. Police found Perkinson’s fingerprint on the BMW and the murder weapon was found in the BMW. Perkinson told police after his arrest that he had gone to Dekalb County on June 6 in the green Toyota Corolla with his brothers and Rico Wilson, but Wilson left them in Dekalb County and he did not see the white BMW until that night in Rome when Rico Wilson was driving it. In a second statement, he said Rico Wilson told him he wanted to steal a BMW to pay off a debt. Perkinson said he did not see the carjacking, but he later saw Wilson in the BMW with three unidentified passengers. Perkinson said he and two others followed the BMW on I-75 in the Toyota, but stopped following it after it reached Bartow County. However, witnesses in Cartersville and Rome saw the BMW and the green Toyota Corolla driving around together on the night of June 6.
