Merry Angela Hancock was convicted of murder in the shooting deaths of Helen Neal Hancock and Howard Brooks Hancock, the parents of her husband. The jury rejected verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity or guilty but mentally ill. She appeals from the denial of her motion for a new trial.1 Finding the evidence sufficient to support the verdict and no reversible error in the trial court’s rulings, we affirm. 1. The jury was authorized to find that while appellant and her husband were in the process of divorcing, appellant lived in the marital residence owned by the victims. Also residing in the home were appellant’s teenaged son Nelson and adult daughter Heather, along with Heather’s boyfriend, David Palmer. Both Nelson and Heather testified regarding prior instances in which appellant had flown into a violent rage and assaulted them. On the morning of the crimes, appellant got into a heated argument with Heather. Nelson, after hearing appellant beg Heather to take a swing at her so appellant could shoot her, ran out of the house and caught the bus to his high school. Heather called 911 and then hung up the phone in an attempt to “fake appellant out” of her rage. Appellant threw the phone at Heather, hitting her and leaving a gash in the back of the head.
After being injured, Heather ran out of the house and contacted the victims. She met with them and decided to move out of the house. Heather returned to the house with three friends and although appellant was present, the daughter retrieved her belongings without incident. Around 4 p.m. the victims came to the house and parked along the road in order to collect Nelson when he returned from school. David Palmer, who had left for work before the morning’s argument, arrived at the house; he joined the victims in their van as they told him about the incident. He was inside the van when appellant walked up and began arguing with the victims over their plan to take Nelson. Palmer went into the house; when appellant arrived shortly thereafter, Palmer questioned her about the incident with Heather. Appellant claimed that Heather had “jumped in the way of” a plastic bottle she had thrown. When Palmer said he would talk to Heather about the incident, appellant began screaming about the victims “trying to send her to jail and take her kids.” Refusing to listen to her screaming, Palmer went outside and sat down in the driveway. A few minutes later appellant started outside, doubled back to lock the door, then returned to walk past Palmer, commenting to him that he should get in the van because he was “leaving like the victims were.” Appellant then walked to the driver’s side of the van where Palmer heard appellant screaming again about the victims not taking Nelson. Witnesses passing by in vehicles on the road testified that they saw appellant arguing heatedly with the van occupants, twice “backhand” the male driver of the van, and then begin shooting into the van before leaving the scene and walking back up the driveway. Palmer, hearing the shots and seeing the glass of the van’s passenger side window shatter, ran away. As he attempted to find a neighbor at home to call for help, he saw appellant driving off just as police, contacted by others, began to arrive.
