Terrance Acliese appeals his convictions for malice murder, three counts of felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, two counts of burglary, possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, theft by receiving and failure to stop in connection with the fatal stabbing of Eric Herndon. We affirm his convictions. 1
Construing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence showed that Acliese and a friend, Maraleto Wil-loughby, met the victim at a nightclub and offered to give him a ride home. On the way to the victim’s apartment, Willoughby told Acliese that it was his “mission” to rob the victim. At the apartment Acliese and the victim talked until Acliese got up to use the restroom, grabbed the victim from behind, and held and punched the victim while Willoughby repeatedly stabbed him with a pen knife. Acliese then pinned the victim in a chair by placing his knee on the victim’s chest, while Willoughby ran through the apartment taking property belonging to the victim and placed the items in his car. Willoughby later reentered the apartment, retrieved several knives from the kitchen, and stabbed the victim in the eye, causing the knife blade to separate from the handle. The victim continued to resist the attack, and Acliese threw him on the floor and held him while Willoughby sliced his throat with another knife. As the victim lay on the floor bleeding, Acliese kissed the victim, told him he hoped he made it to heaven, and snapped his neck. Acliese then collected the knives used during the attack and the victim’s video cassette recorder while Wil-loughby took other belongings from the apartment.
After the murder, Acliese pawned the video cassette recorder *20 and he and another friend stole a car from the victim’s apartment complex. Acliese was driving the stolen vehicle when it was spotted by police. The police chased Acliese, but he abandoned the vehicle and eluded the police. Acliese’s bloody shirt, a bloody towel, the pen knife, a bent steak knife, the handle of the knife that broke during the attack, and a pawn ticket for the video cassette recorder with Acliese’s name on it were found in the stolen car.
1. We find the evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find Acliese guilty of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt.
Jackson v.
Virginia,
2. At trial, the court admitted into evidence an exhibit comprised of 63 latent fingerprint cards which were identified by the agent in charge of the investigation. Acliese contends the admission of this exhibit was error because the State failed to lay a proper foundation. However, Acliese did not object to the admission of the exhibit at trial and the issue is waived on appeal.
Earnest v. State,
3. Acliese argues that the aggravated assault count merged into the malice murder count as a matter of fact and his conviction of aggravated assault must therefore be reversed. We disagree. A separate judgment of conviction and sentence are authorized if a defendant commits an aggravated assault independent of the act which causes the victim’s death.
Drane v. State,
4. Acliese’s contention that the trial court failed to properly instruct the jury on the State’s burden of proving the underlying felonies for the felony murder counts is moot in light of his conviction for malice murder.
Spencer v. State,
5. We reject Acliese’s contention that the trial court’s instruction on burglary impermissibly shifted the burden of proof and constituted an expression of opinion that Acliese had in fact engaged in
*21
offensive aggressive behavior. Considering the charge as a whole, the trial court properly explained to the jury the elements of the crime of burglary and the State’s burden of proof, and specifically charged that there is no burden of proof on the defendant whatever. See generally
Zellner v. State,
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
The crimes occurred on or about August 10-11, 1998. Acliese was indicted on September 29, 1998. The trial was held on March 8-17, 2000, and Acliese was found guilty of all charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for malice murder, a consecutive life sentence for armed robbery, a ten year concurrent sentence for burglary with intent to commit a theft, a consecutive twenty year term for aggravated assault, a consecutive five year term for possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, a consecutive ten year term for theft by receiving and a consecutive twelve month term for failure to stop. The three felony murder counts and burglary with intent to commit minder were vacated as a matter of law. Acliese filed his notice of appeal on March 22, 2000, the appeal was docketed in this Court on September 28, 2000, and was submitted for decision on the briefs.