Funderburk v. State, S03A0218.

• Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
• Writing for the Court: BENHAM, Justice.
• Citation: 276 Ga. 554,580 S.E.2d 234
• Parties: FUNDERBURK v. The STATE.
• Docket Number: No. S03A0218.,S03A0218.
• Decision Date: 05 May 2003

580 S.E.2d 234
276 Ga. 554

FUNDERBURK
v.
The STATE

No. S03A0218.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

May 5, 2003.

Cynthia W. Harrison, Stone Mountain, for appellant.

Paul L. Howard, Jr., Dist. Atty., Bettieanne C. Hart, Peggy A. Katz, Asst. Dist. Attys., Thurbert E. Baker, Atty. Gen., Ruth M. Pawlak, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

BENHAM, Justice.

This appeal is from Rickey Eugene Funderburk's conviction for the murder of Bonnie

580 S.E.2d 235

Hawkins.¹ Evidence adduced at trial showed the following. Funderburk worked as night manager of a video store and lived in an apartment above the store. The manager of the store awakened Funderburk on January 21, 2000, after discovering the store in disarray and some cash collected during the previous night missing. Funderburk, who had been drinking with Hawkins the night before, became upset and started drinking again. Called by the store manager, a police officer questioned Funderburk, who attempted to implicate Hawkins as the person who had stolen the money. As the questioning continued, Funderburk became confrontational, telling the officer he would take care of the problem with Bonnie Hawkins himself if the officer did not. The video store manager testified he heard Funderburk say in the parking lot he was going to burn a building down. Another witness testified he heard Funderburk say that same morning he planned to burn someone, and a third witness testified Funderburk said later that morning he was going to burn somebody up. A friend who helped Funderburk clean up the store recounted Funderburk poured charcoal lighter fluid into a plastic bottle and walked out while saying he was going to burn someone up. Subsequently, the building where Bonnie Hawkins lived [276 Ga. 555] burned and she was found dead of smoke inhalation. Later that day, Funderburk approached witnesses who had observed the fire spreading and said he had burned someone and would do it again. A fire department witness testified the cause of the fire was arson and the fire was started in two distinct places in the house

1. Though largely circumstantial, the evidence adduced at trial and summarized above was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find Funderburk guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Lowe v. State, 267 Ga. 180(1), 476 S.E.2d 583 (1996). Since the trial court entered a judgment of conviction and sentence only on the verdict...