In 1996, Daniel Morris Colwell was charged with numerous offenses arising out of the fatal shootings of Judith and Michael Bell in a Sumter County store parking lot. Immediately after a jury found Colwell competent to stand trial, he pled guilty to two counts of malice murder, six counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm at a public gathering, and carrying a pistol without a license.1 In the sentencing trial that was convened five months after the guilty pleas were entered, a second jury found the existence of statutory aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt and fixed the penalty for both of the malice murder charges and for each of the six felony murder charges at death. The trial court imposed eight death sentences in accordance with the jury’s determination. We affirm as to two of the death sentences, vacate the six convictions and death sentences for felony murder, vacate the convictions and sentences for aggravated assault, and affirm as to the remaining convictions and sentences.
1. The evidence presented at Colwell’s sentencing trial showed that Colwell, wishing to die but unable to commit suicide, formulated a plan to kill more than one person in order to secure his own execution. He put his plan in motion on July 20, 1996, when he drove to a store parking lot in Sumter County and approached Mitchell and Judith Bell as they conversed with a friend. Colwell shot Mr. Bell in the back, stood over him as he begged for his life, and shot him in the head. Colwell then shot Mrs. Bell in the head as she lay on the pavement wailing. Colwell left the Bells, got into his car, and drove to the Americus Police Department where he gave a tape recorded confession. In the tape-recorded statement, which was played for the sentencing jury, Colwell explained that he had purchased a handgun to commit suicide but “didn’t have the nerve to pull the trigger to his head.” He went on to say that he wanted to commit suicide and saw “going to the electric chair” as “a way of dying.” After Colwell’s counsel presented extensive evidence in mitigation, Colwell testified and told the jury he had committed the murders for the purpose of obtaining a death sentence and that he would kill again if he did not receive the death penalty.
