Joe E. Canada was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime. Correctly treating the felony murder count as surplusage and the aggravated assault count as having merged into the malice murder count, the trial court sentenced Canada to life imprisonment for malice murder and to a consecutive five-year term for possession of a knife. See Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369, 372-374 4, 5 1993. His motion for new trial was denied, and he appeals.1
1. Construed so as to support the verdict, the evidence shows that Canada inappropriately touched the victim’s girlfriend. An argument ensued at that time and later in the girlfriend’s mobile home. When the victim began walking towards the hallway, Canada ran at him with a steak knife from the kitchen, pushing him into the back bedroom and stabbing him several times. After two and one-half weeks in the hospital, the victim died of complications from the knife wounds. Canada relies primarily on his own testimony that the victim had a knife and was the aggressor. However, there was ample eyewitness testimony to the contrary. Although two of the eyewitnesses were somewhat equivocal, none of them gave testimony similar to that of Canada. ” ‘Witness credibility is to be determined by the jury, OCGA § 24-9-80, as is the question of self-defense when there is conflicting evidence on the issue. Cits.’ Cit.” Holmes v. State, 273 Ga. 644, 645 1 543 SE2d 688 2001. The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find that Canada did not act in self-defense when he stabbed the victim and that he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of malice murder and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979; Coleman v. State, 264 Ga. 253, 254 1 443 SE2d 626 1994.
