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Final Copy 289 Ga. 145

S11A0031. JONES v. THE STATE.

HUNSTEIN, Chief Justice. Appellant Jimmy Lee Jones was convicted of murder and firearms offenses in connection with the shooting death of Latoya Singleton. Finding no error in the denial of Jones's motion for new trial, 1 we affirm. 1. The evidence adduced at trial authorized the jury to find that Jones and the victim had dated and lived together at various times, and had a child together in July 2006. At the time of the crimes, Jones was living with his mother and the child was living with the victim. In the early morning hours of April 14, 2007, an officer responding to a security alarm call at the victim's home heard
The crimes occurred on April 14, 2007. Jones was indicted in Richmond County on July 31, 2007 and charged with malice murder, felony murder based on aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, cruelty to children in the third degree and use of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was tried before a jury and on May 22, 2008 found guilty of all charges except child cruelty. A hearing was held on June 26, 2008, and in an order entered July 2, 2008 the trial court sentenced Jones to life imprisonment for malice murder plus consecutive terms of five years for firearm possession and fifteen years for firearm use by a convicted felon. The felony murder conviction was vacated by operation of law. Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (4) (434 SE2d 479) (1993). Jones's motion for new trial was filed on July 3, 2008 and denied on July 21, 2010; his notice of appeal was timely filed. The appeal was docketed in this Court for the January 2011 term and submitted for decision on the briefs.
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a baby crying inside, followed by a gunshot. When backup arrived, officers entered the home and found the victim lying dead in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor with the baby sitting next to her. There was a handgun with no magazine on the kitchen table, later determined to be registered to Jones, and a matching cartridge casing nearby. A cordless phone was lying on the living room floor and the "Caller ID" showed that the last call made had been to Jones's mother. An unoccupied vehicle idling in the driveway of the victim's home was determined to be registered to Jones's mother. The autopsy revealed that the victim died from a single gunshot at contact range that entered the top of her head and traveled downward; the bullet matched the gun and casing found at the scene. At trial, Jones asserted a defense of accident, testifying that he went to the victim's home around 3:00 a.m. to check on the baby, who had an ear infection. He and the victim decided to go to McDonald's, but Jones remembered that he had left a handgun under the mattress in the victim's bedroom and went to retrieve it. The victim began crying when she saw Jones holding the gun and he reassured her that the gun, which did not have a magazine in it, was not loaded. Testifying that he acted to allay the victim's fears, Jones held her with one arm
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and pointed the gun downward on her head, believing she would calm down if she heard the gun click harmlessly when he pulled the trigger. The gun fired, however. Jones called his mother from the victim's phone to tell her what had happened before fleeing the scene on foot. He took a truck from his workplace and drove to Florida, where he later turned himself in to police. Similar transaction evidence was admitted regarding Jones's conviction for a 1996 aggravated assault. The victim in that instance was Jones's former girlfriend and mother to five of his children. Jones shot a gun at the victim three times as she ran away from him, with one shot hitting under her ear, and he fled the scene. Jones contends that the evidence in this case did not support the jury's verdict, as it was entirely circumstantial and did not exclude the reasonable hypothesis that he acted without criminal intent. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, however, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find Jones guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). 2. Jones argues that the trial court erred by giving a "prior difficulties"
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charge2 to the jury because it was not adjusted to the evidence and amounted to an improper expression of judicial opinion in violation of OCGA

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