Appellant Calvin Oliver was convicted and sentenced for the malice murder of Melissa Jennings and the burglary of the victim’s apartment in Gwinnett County.1 He appeals the judgment of conviction and, after reviewing the record, we affirm. 1. The victim was found by her fiance on March 15, 1999, strangled to death with a single stocking in the Gwinnett County apartment they shared. The bedroom appeared to have been ransacked, and the contents of the victim’s purse were scattered on the floor by the front door. According to her co-workers, the victim had left work during the lunch hour to return to the apartment. There was no sign of forced entry into the apartment, and the victim’s fiance testified he had been the last person to exit the apartment the morning the victim was killed, and that he had locked the deadbolt lock. The fiance also testified that the murder weapon was not the type of stocking the victim wore, and its mate was not found. Appellant was a maintenance worker at the apartment complex where the victim lived and had access to keys to all the apartments. A diamond engagement ring later identified as belonging to the victim was found in an authorized search of appellant’s apartment. A resident of the apartment complex testified appellant once had entered her locked apartment without knocking and, upon finding her in the apartment, had stated he was replacing light bulbs. Upon being told by the tenant she had not requested such a service, appellant told her it must have been for a similarly-numbered apartment; a check with management revealed there was no work order for lightbulb replacement. Another tenant testified that her security system monitoring service twice reported an entry into her apartment and each time she found the door unlocked when she got home. Afterwards, appellant told her he had a work order for her apartment and asked her to disarm the security system. When apartment management told her there was no work order for her apartment, she continued to arm the security system. A redacted videotape of two police interviews with appellant was played for the jury. Appellant mentioned his prior convictions for burglary and rape and, while alone, made statements purportedly talking about suicide, which the trial court admitted as evidence of consciousness of guilt.
Appellant contends the trial court erroneously denied his motion for directed verdict of acquittal because there was insufficient evidence of malice and the elements of burglary were not established. In reviewing a trial court’s denial of a defendant’s motion for directed verdict of acquittal, an appellate court applies the “sufficiency of the evidence” test of Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979. Morgan v. State , 276 Ga. 72 1 575 SE2d 468 2003. Legal malice “is an unlawful intention to kill without justification or mitigation. . . .” Bailey v. State , 70 Ga. 617, hn. 2 1883. Whether a killing is intentional and malicious is for the jury to determine from all the facts and circumstances. Blair v. State , 245 Ga. 611 3 266 SE2d 214 1980. One commits burglary when, without authority and with the intent to commit a felony, a person enters the dwelling house of another. OCGA § 16-7-1a. The evidence presented was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder and burglary. Jackson v. Virginia , supra.
