## Facts

- Frederick Mashard Murray and Sharon Jones began a romantic relationship after Jones separated from her husband and moved to live with Murray in Colquitt County, Georgia.
- While living with Murray, Jones had a sexual relationship with her coworker, Kevin Crumedy, and became pregnant.
- Murray became jealous and aggressive toward Jones, including striking her and threatening her with a gun.
- Murray confronted Crumedy at Jones’s workplace after finding Crumedy’s phone number in Jones’s coat and threatened to shoot Crumedy if he saw him on the street.
- Murray also told Jones she “might as well quit her job” because it would be her last day, and he displayed a gun while suggesting he would shoot her.
- At work, Crumedy helped Jones leave town by bus.
- Several days later, Jones returned with her estranged husband and a police officer to retrieve her belongings from the residence she had shared with Murray; Murray appeared and showed what looked like a new or different gun, but Jones left without incident.
- On her way out of town, Jones stopped at Crumedy’s home. Murray drove up and approached Jones, her husband, and Crumedy.
- Murray asked Crumedy whether he remembered “all that stuff” he had said at work; after a brief exchange, Murray pulled out a gun and shot Crumedy once in the chest, killing him.
- After the shooting, Murray told Jones to come with him and said he did it because he loved her and would do anything to keep her.
- Murray was indicted for murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. After a bench trial, the trial court found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter and the firearm offense. His motion for new trial was denied, and he appealed on general grounds (sufficiency of the evidence).

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the trial court’s finding of guilt, was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find Murray guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of voluntary manslaughter.
2. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction for possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed.
- The court held that the evidence authorized the trial court, as factfinder in a bench trial, to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Murray unlawfully killed Crumedy under circumstances amounting to voluntary manslaughter.
- The court also held the evidence supported the firearm conviction because Murray possessed and used the gun during the homicide.

## Legal Principles

- On appellate review of the general grounds, the court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict (or, in a bench trial, the trial court’s adjudication of guilt) and asks whether any rational trier of fact could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. (Jackson v. Virginia standard as applied in Georgia.)
- An appellate court does not reweigh evidence or decide witness credibility; conflicts in the evidence are resolved by the factfinder.
- Voluntary manslaughter occurs when a person causes the death of another under circumstances that would otherwise be murder, but the killing results from a sudden, violent, and irresistible passion arising from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a reasonable person. (O.C.G.A. § 16-5-2.)
- Intent to kill may be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon in a manner likely to cause death.
- Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime is supported by proof that the defendant had and used a firearm while committing the underlying felony. (O.C.G.A. § 16-11-106.)

## Conclusion

The Court of Appeals affirmed Murray’s convictions because the record—showing prior threats, the confrontation at Crumedy’s home, the intentional shooting, and Murray’s post-shooting statements—permitted a rational factfinder to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Murray committed voluntary manslaughter and possessed a firearm during the commission of that crime.


Murray v. State, 543 S.E.2d 428 (2000)