Stowe v. State

After being charged with several offenses, Jimmy Wayne Stowe pled guilty to violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. He was tried on the remaining charges, and a jury found him guilty of both felony and malice murder in connection with the homicide of his wife, and of possessing a firearm during the commission of that crime. The trial court properly entered judgments of conviction only on the malice murder and firearm possession verdicts, since the felony murder verdict was vacated by operation of OCGA § 16-1-7. Goforth v. State, 271 Ga. 700 523 SE2d 868 1999; Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369, 373 5 434 SE2d 479 1993. The trial court sentenced Stowe to life imprisonment on the murder charge and to a consecutive five-year term for the firearm possession offense. The trial court denied Stowe’s motion for new trial, and he appeals.1

1. Stowe contends that there was not sufficient evidence for a rational trier of fact to find him guilty of the crimes alleged in the indictment. He relies upon his defense of accident and upon conflicts in the testimony.