A jury found Jason Flores guilty of the felony murder of Jesse Williamson while in the commission of aggravated assault by shooting him with a pellet gun; the aggravated assault of Williamson with a pellet gun; the aggravated assault of Eric Mitchell with a pellet gun; the involuntary manslaughter of Williamson while in the commission of reckless conduct; reckless conduct against Williamson; and reckless conduct against Mitchell. Flores was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the felony murder and a concurrent year in prison for the aggravated assault of Mitchell. Following the denial of a motion for new trial, Flores challenges his convictions on the bases that the evidence of his guilt was insufficient and that the verdicts of guilty of felony murder and involuntary manslaughter are mutually exclusive. We find the evidence sufficient to support Flores’s convictions. However, his conviction of felony murder cannot stand because, under the circumstances in this case, the verdicts of guilty of felony murder and involuntary manslaughter are mutually exclusive under Jackson v. State , 276 Ga. 408 577 SE2d 570 2003.1 The evidence, construed in favor of the verdicts, showed that on the evening of July 29, 2002, Jason Flores and his friend, Matt Hardy, met with Nick Hatzileris, Jesse Williamson, and Eric Mitchell in a shopping center parking lot in Dallas, Georgia. The young men, who were all either friends or acquaintances, went to Flores’s temporary residence. The residence was divided into two separate households: the lower level was rented to Flores’s uncle and his family and the upstairs apartment was rented to the Calhoun family. Flores was staying in the screened-in back porch area attached to the upstairs apartment.
When the young men arrived at the home, the Calhouns were out of town and Flores’s uncle and family were entertaining guests on the lower level. Prior to leaving town, Mr. Calhoun told Flores that he was not to enter the apartment unless there was an emergency. Nevertheless, when the young men arrived, they entered the upstairs apartment by way of the stairway at the rear of the house. They proceeded through the screened-in porch and into the Calhoun living room. Someone from the downstairs apartment came upstairs to see who was there and the young men hid in the kitchen. Flores spoke with this person, the individual went back downstairs, and the young men rejoined Flores in the living room.
