SOILBERRY v. State, 289 Ga. 770

Soilberry, babysitting his girlfriend's 3-year-old child, found the child in distress and later admitted beating the child after the child soiled himself.
Medical examination showed extensive injuries including a liver laceration, rib fractures, blunt force trauma, throttling injuries, and other beatings with a rod-like object.
Soilberry initially gave a false account, then confessed after Miranda warnings that he beat the child in a rage.
The jury convicted Soilberry of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery; the felony murder conviction was vacated by operation of law, and sentences were imposed for the remaining counts.
Soilberry challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, the voluntariness of statements, and the need to merge aggravated battery with malice murder; the Court reaffirmed some convictions, vacated one merger, and remanded for resentencing.
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed some convictions, vacated the aggravated battery merger into malice murder, and remanded for resentencing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence for malice murder and related convictions	Soilberry argues the evidence fails to prove the charged murders and felonies beyond reasonable doubt	State contends the medical and testimonial evidence supports guilt	Evidence sufficient to sustain guilty verdicts for the charged offenses
Admissibility and voluntariness of Soilberry's statements	Soilberry claims Miranda violations rendered statements involuntary	Investigative context was noncustodial; warnings given; statements admissible	Statements admissible; no improper custodial interrogation or involuntariness found
Merger of aggravated battery with malice murder; sentence implications	No merger of aggravated battery into malice murder under the same conduct	Two offenses are included where only less serious injury differentiates	Aggravated battery conviction merged into malice murder; remanded for resentencing

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1981) (sufficiency review for criminal verdicts)
Heckman v. State, 276 Ga. 141 (2003) ( Miranda/noncustodial exceptions; custody analysis)
Tolliver v. State, 273 Ga. 785 (2001) ( custody determination; noncustodial interrogations permissible)
Durham v. State, 281 Ga. 208 (2006) ( custody and interrogation standards; voluntariness)
Warbington v. State, 281 Ga. 464 (2007) ( credibility determinations; jury weighing of evidence)
Daniel v. State, 285 Ga. 406 (2009) ( voluntariness of statements; police tactics)
Ledford v. State, 289 Ga. 70 (2011) ( merger rules for offenses based on same conduct)