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Final Copy 290 Ga. 418 S11A1835. WILLIAMS v. THE STATE.

THOMPSON, Justice. Appellant Bryant Williams was found guilty of, inter alia, the malice murders of Linda Mathis, and her sister, Marlow Mathis, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.1 His motion for new trial was denied, and he appeals. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the denial of his motion for new trial. 1. The trier of fact was authorized to find that on the day of the crimes, appellant argued with Linda Mathis, his girlfriend of several years, and demanded she move out of his apartment before he returned from work. He went home

The crimes occurred on April 30, 2008. Appellant was indicted in December 2008 by a McDuffie County grand jury on charges of malice murder (two counts), felony murder (two counts), aggravated assault (two counts), possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime (three counts), and feticide (two counts). Pursuant to agreement, appellant waived his right to a jury trial in exchange for the State's agreement not to seek the death penalty. After a stipulated bench trial, appellant was found guilty on February 8, 2011, of all charges except one count of feticide and the court found the existence of statutory aggravating circumstances for each of the malice murder counts. On February 15, 2011, he was sentenced to life without parole for the malice murder of Linda Mathis, life for the malice murder of Marlow Mathis, life for the feticide count, and five years to serve for each count of possession to run consecutively to the life sentences and to each other. The remaining felony murder and aggravated assault convictions were merged and vacated by operation of law. See Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (4) (434 SE2d 479) (1993). A motion for new trial was filed on March 2, 2011 and denied on June 20, 2011. Appellant filed a notice of appeal on June 29, 2011. The appeal was docketed in this Court for the September 2011 term and submitted for decision on the briefs.

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early from work, and finding the victims still in the apartment, he fatally shot Linda three times, twice in the head and once in the neck, and shot Marlow, killing both her and her 25-week-old fetus. Appellant then called 911 and told the operator he had shot two women at his apartment and they required medical attention. Appellant later admitted to other witnesses and GBI agents that he shot the victims. Construed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, the evidence was sufficient to enable the trial court to determine appellant was guilty of 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); Tarver v. State, 278 Ga. 358 (5) (602 SE2d 627) (2004) (evidence sufficient to find aggravating circumstances under OCGA

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