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Final Copy 289 Ga. 39 S10A1744. WATSON v. THE STATE.

MELTON, Justice. Following a jury trial, Benjamin Jarrod Watson was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony in connection with the stabbing death of Nakya Seales.1 On appeal Watson contends, among other things, that (1) the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his convictions; (2) the trial court erred in its charge to the jury and in failing to recharge the jury; (3) his trial counsel was ineffective; and (4) the trial court erred with respect to various evidentiary matters. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. 1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, the evidence reveals On December 19, 2000, Watson was indicted for felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony. Following a June 25-28, 2001 jury trial, on June 28, 2001, Watson was found guilty on all charges except malice murder. On that same day, the trial court sentenced Watson to life imprisonment for felony murder and five consecutive years for possession of a knife during the commission of a felony. The aggravated assault count was merged into the felony murder count for sentencing purposes. On January 18, 2008, the trial court granted Watson's motion for leave of court to file an out-of-time motion for a new trial, and Watson filed a motion for new trial on that same day. Watson amended his motion for new trial on April 20, 2009, and April 28, 2009. The trial court denied Watson's motion for new trial on February 9, 2010. On June 17, 2010, the trial court granted Watson's motion to file an out-of-time appeal. Watson's appeal was docketed in this Court for the September 2010 Term, and his case was submitted for decision on the briefs.
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that, on November 29, 2000, Erica Johnson made plans to meet with Seales. Seales was running late, and he left a message on a voice mail system that Johnson shared with her boyfriend, Watson. Johnson and Seales met up and then went to Johnson's mobile home. When they arrived, Watson emerged from one of the bedrooms holding a knife. Watson then walked up to Seales, who was in the living room area, and demanded that Seales leave. Johnson fled out of the back door to a neighbor's house where she called her aunt, Tokyo Rutledge-Smith, and told her that she was worried because Watson was in her home with Seales. Shawn Brunson, a neighbor, was walking by Johnson's home to go visit a fellow neighbor when he witnessed Johnson fleeing her home through the back door. Brunson also heard stomping and loud noises coming from the trailer. As Brunson was on his way back home, he saw Watson come out of the back door of the trailer. Watson questioned Brunson as to whether he had seen anyone come out of the back door. Frightened by the blood on Watson's shirt, Brunson said no. As Watson walked away, Brunson could see a knife in Watson's back pocket. Responding to Johnson's call, Rutledge-Smith saw Watson driving away as she was turning into the trailer park. They both stopped to talk, and Watson told her that it was Seales' blood on his shirt and that he had to cut him to get Seales off of him. Rutledge-Smith asked Watson to go back to Johnson's trailer so they could discuss

what had happened. When she and Watson arrived at the trailer, Rutledge-Smith pushed the door open, saw Seales on the floor covered in blood, and called 911. She then waited with Watson until police arrived. When the police got there, they took Watson into custody. Watson admitted to the police that he had killed Seales. At trial, Dr. Whitaker, an expert in forensic crime scene analysis, concluded that Seales had multiple defensive wounds and that the first stab wound had brought Seales down. Dr. Whitaker further concluded that Seales had been held by either his shoulder or head while additional wounds were inflicted and that the final stab wounds to Seales' neck and head occurred while Seales was on the ground. The evidence outlined above was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Watson guilty of all the crimes for which he was convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). 2. Watson contends that the trial court erred in refusing to allow three of his potential witnesses to testify at trial. However, the record reveals that these witnesses did not testify because Watson was unable to locate them prior to trial, not because the trial court made any ruling regarding the admissibility of their testimony. This enumeration is therefore waived on appeal (Butts v. State, 273 Ga. 760, 771 (31) (546 SE2d 472) (2001) (party's failure to obtain ruling on an issue at trial court level waives
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review of the issue on appeal)), and is otherwise without merit. 3. Without arguing any specifics in his brief, Watson claims that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his custodial statement to police because his statement was involuntary and had been obtained through trickery. The record reveals, however, that Watson's counsel conceded at the hearing on the motion to suppress that he had "no facts that [he] could point to to show that [Watson's custodial statement to police was] not voluntary based on the testimony [he] heard [at the hearing from police officers indicating that Watson's statement was freely and voluntarily made]." Accordingly, "the trial court did not err in refusing to suppress [Watson's] . . . custodial statement[ ]." Vergara v. State, 283 Ga. 175, 181 (1) (657 SE2d 863) (2008). 4. Watson's contention that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained in the warrantless search of his automobile is also without merit, as the record reveals that the search of the inside of the automobile was conducted pursuant to a warrant, and that the initial list of the contents of the vehicle was made during a proper inventory search of the vehicle during which no officers actually entered the car. See Wright v. State, 276 Ga. 454 (5) (579 SE2d 214) (2003). 5. Watson argues that the trial court erred in admitting testimony at trial regarding

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prior difficulties between Watson and Seales.2 However, Watson failed to object to this testimony at trial and has therefore waived review of this issue on appeal. See Warbington v. State, 267 Ga. 462 (2) (479 SE2d 733) (1997). 6. Watson urges that the trial court erred in denying his special and general demurrers to the indictment. He claims that the indictment was insufficient in that it did not specifically state that the knife involved in the crime of possession of a knife during the commission of a felony had to have a blade of at least three inches. See OCGA

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