In the Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided: August 9, 2022

S22A0737. WALKER v. THE STATE.

 ELLINGTON, Justice.

A Richmond County jury found Shaun Walker guilty of malice 

murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of 

Antonio Jerome Ferguson.1 On appeal, Walker contends that the

 1 The murder occurred on September 3, 2017, in Richmond County. On 

October 31, 2017, a Richmond County grand jury returned an indictment 

accusing Walker of malice murder (Count 1), felony murder based on the 

predicate felony of aggravated assault (Count 2), criminal attempt to commit 

armed robbery (Count 3), possession of a firearm during the commission of a 

crime (Count 4), terroristic threats (Count 5), and possession of a firearm by a 

convicted felon (Count 6). Following a trial held January 28 to 31, 2020, the 

jury returned verdicts of guilty on Counts 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. The trial court

thereafter sentenced Walker to serve life in prison without parole for malice 

murder, concurrent five-year prison terms for terroristic threats and 

possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and a consecutive five-year prison 

term for possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. The trial 

court noted that the felony murder count “merged as a matter of law.” 

However, because the jury found Walker guilty of malice murder, the felony 

murder count actually was vacated by operation of law, see Malcolm v. State, 

263 Ga. 369, 372 (5) (434 SE2d 479) (1993), and the aggravated assault that 

formed the predicate for the felony murder count merged into the malice 

murder conviction. Walker timely filed a motion for new trial, which was

amended on September 28, 2021. The trial court denied the motion on January 

26, 2022, and Walker filed a notice of appeal from that order on February 11, 
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evidence was insufficient to support his convictions. Because the 

evidence was sufficient to establish Walker’s guilt beyond a 

reasonable doubt as to each of his convictions, we discern no error in 

the trial court’s ruling.

1. Facts. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s 

verdicts, the evidence presented at trial showed the following. In 

early September 2017, Walker and Ferguson were living together in 

a house that Ferguson had rented. Walker admitted that he and 

Ferguson had been arguing with each other over money. Ferguson’s 

landlord testified that Ferguson, who was behind on the rent, had 

gone with him to several automated teller machines on September 

2, 2017, the day before the shooting, to withdraw cash with which to 

pay his rent. The landlord testified that Walker accompanied 

Ferguson to each of the machines that they visited. 

That night, Walker and Ferguson went to a bar in Augusta, 

where they got into a heated argument. When Walker became

 

2022. This appeal was docketed to the April 2022 term of court and submitted 

for a decision on the briefs.
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belligerent, bar employees and an off-duty police officer working 

security for the bar told Walker to leave. The officer’s body-camera 

video recording shows Walker threatening Ferguson by making a 

hand gesture that simulated Walker shooting Ferguson with a gun.

In this video, Walker said: “F**k with me, [I’m going to] kill your

a**[.]” The police arrested Walker shortly after the incident because

Walker returned to the bar after being ordered to leave.

On September 3, after being released from jail, Walker went to 

a grocery store where Ferguson and another man were shopping. 

Ferguson’s sister was also in the store and witnessed Walker talking 

to her brother. The sister testified that, as Ferguson paid for his 

groceries in cash, Walker stood nearby, watching. Moments later, 

Walker left the store. The sister watched as Ferguson and his friend

left together, heading toward the parking lot with their groceries. 

Shortly after he was seen at the grocery store, Walker 

confronted Ferguson on the sidewalk of a residential street not far 

from their home. He pointed a gun at Ferguson, snatched Ferguson’s 

cell phone from his hand, and demanded money. A ten-year-old 
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eyewitness to these events testified that Ferguson responded by

saying: “[T]his is not your money, you can’t get my money.” The child 

testified that the gunman shot Ferguson several times and then fled 

in the direction of a nearby school. Immediately after the shooting, 

the child described the gunman and his clothing, a white tank top 

and black pants, to the police. On cross-examination, the child 

testified that, although he heard the shooting and saw the gunman

running away, he did not observe the shooting. Later in the trial,

however, the prosecutor again called the child to testify, and the 

child testified that he had in fact seen the gunman threatening and 

then shooting Ferguson. He also testified that gunman told him

immediately after the shooting: “[D]on’t tell nobody.” Another 

witness testified that, although she did not witness the shooting, she 

had seen two young men walking together before the shooting. When 

she heard the gun shots, she ran outside and saw one man on the 

ground, one man running, and a “little boy . . . out there . . . 

hollering.”

Investigators recovered time-stamped surveillance video
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recordings taken from cameras mounted on the exterior of a high 

school near the scene of the shooting. The recordings showed 

Walker, who was wearing black pants and a white tank top, running 

in front of the school. He ran by a row of bushes beneath which the 

murder weapon was later recovered. After comparing the school 

surveillance video with the police body-camera video showing 

Walker and Ferguson arguing at the bar the night before, the police 

determined that Walker was a likely suspect in Ferguson’s murder. 

After his arrest, Walker gave the police a recorded statement. 

In his statement, Walker recounted his many grievances with 

Ferguson. He claimed that Ferguson constantly threatened him 

with a gun and a machete. He said that Ferguson was often drunk

and that Ferguson had taken advantage of him and stolen his 

money. Walker eventually admitted killing Ferguson, but claimed 

that he did so in self-defense. As he stood up and held his wrists 

together, indicating that the police should handcuff him, Walker 

said: “I did his a**. I’m done. You can take me in. I got a pistol and 

did his a**. It was self-defense and that’s the f*****g truth.” After 
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this admission, Walker explained that Ferguson was trying to take 

advantage of him: “He [was] trying to max out my card. I told him 

to spend eighty dollars. I had one [hundred and] thirty left.” 

After giving this statement, Walker led the police to an area by

the high school where he had discarded the murder weapon, a .45-

caliber pistol, in dense bushes. Forensic testing established that the 

pistol was the weapon that had ejected the five .45-caliber shell 

casings recovered from the scene of the shooting. During a search of 

Walker’s home, police found a box of .45-caliber ammunition. The 

police also recovered the clothes that Walker had been wearing on 

the day of the shooting from the home of one of Walker’s friends. The 

friend testified that Walker appeared at his home on the afternoon 

of the shooting and asked to use his washing machine. The clothes, 

which had been washed when the police recovered them, matched 

the clothes Walker was wearing in the school surveillance video

recording. The defense and the State stipulated that Ferguson had 

died as a result of gunshot wounds to the torso, right forearm, and 

legs. After the jury returned its guilty verdicts on Counts 1 through 
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5 of the indictment, the State, in the second part of this bifurcated 

trial, submitted into evidence certified copies of Walker’s 2005 felony 

conviction for burglary. Thereafter, the jury returned a guilty 

verdict on Count 6, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 

2. Analysis. In his sole claim of error, Walker contends that the 

trial court erred in denying his motion for a new trial because the

evidence recounted above was insufficient to prove his guilt beyond 

a reasonable doubt of the crimes charged. In support of this claim, 

Walker argues that his “confession” was not sufficiently 

corroborated by evidence proving that he was, in fact, the shooter.2

He also argues that the evidence against him was entirely 

circumstantial and that the State failed to disprove all other 

reasonable theories.3 For the following reasons, we disagree. 

(a) First, Walker argues that his confession of guilt was not 

 2 See OCGA § 24-8-823 (“All admissions shall be scanned with care, and 

confessions of guilt shall be received with great caution. A confession alone, 

uncorroborated by any other evidence, shall not justify a conviction.”). 3 See OCGA § 24-14-6 (“To warrant a conviction on circumstantial 

evidence, the proved facts shall not only be consistent with the hypothesis of 

guilt, but shall exclude every other reasonable hypothesis save that of the guilt 

of the accused.”).
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properly corroborated by other evidence as required by OCGA § 24-

8-823, which provides in pertinent part that “[a] confession alone, 

uncorroborated by any other evidence, shall not justify a conviction.” 

But Walker’s admissions do not constitute a confession and were not 

described as such by the trial court.4 As we have explained,

a mere incriminating statement is made where the 

accused, though admitting to damaging circumstances, 

nonetheless attempts to deny responsibility for the crime 

charged by putting forward exculpatory or legally 

justifying facts. Thus, [a] statement which includes facts 

or circumstances which show excuse or justification is not 

a confession of guilt even if it admits the main fact[.]

(Citations omitted.) Thomas v. State, 308 Ga. 26, 30 (2) (b) (838 SE2d 

801) (2020). Walker’s statement to police asserted self-defense, so it 

was merely an incriminating statement and corroboration pursuant 

to OCGA § 24-8-823 was not required. See id.

(b) Second, contrary to Walker’s assertion, the evidence offered 

to prove his crimes was not entirely circumstantial. Therefore we 

need not address whether the proved facts “exclude[d] every other 

 4 The trial court did not give the jury an instruction pertaining to 

“confessions.” Rather, the trial court gave the jury several charges pertaining 

to Walker’s “out of court statements.”
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reasonable hypothesis save that of [Walker’s] guilt” of the crimes 

charged. OCGA § 24-14-6. See also Jackson v. State, 311 Ga. 626, 

630 (2) (859 SE2d 626) (2021). (“[I]if there is any direct evidence 

presented by the State, the circumstantial evidence statute does not 

apply to a sufficiency analysis.”) (citations omitted). In fact, ample 

direct as well as circumstantial evidence supported each of his 

convictions. The police officer’s body camera video recording from 

the bar provided direct evidence of Walker making terroristic 

threats to shoot and kill Ferguson.5 Walker’s own admissions 

constitute direct evidence that he murdered Ferguson by shooting 

him and that he possessed a pistol during the commission of that 

crime.6 And the State submitted certified records establishing that 

 5 A video-recording of events alleged to depict a crime constitutes direct 

evidence of the crime. See McCray v. State, 301 Ga. 241, 244 (1) (799 SE2d 206) 

(2017) (“Direct evidence is that which is consistent with either the proposed 

conclusion or its opposite; circumstantial evidence is that which is consistent 

with both the proposed conclusion and its opposite.”) (citation, punctuation and 

emphasis omitted). See also Gonzalez v. State, 359 Ga. App. 147, 150-151 (1) 

(c) (857 SE2d 88) (2021) (Surveillance video constituted direct evidence that 

the defendant touched the clothing around his genital area in a manner 

consistent with masturbation while in close proximity to and watching a 

child.).

6 Testimony about Walker’s admissions is direct, not circumstantial, 

evidence of his guilt. See Harper v. State, 298 Ga. 158, 161 (780 SE2d 308) 

(2015); Evans v. State, 288 Ga. 571, 575-576 (707 SE2d 353) (2011).
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Walker was a convicted felon when he possessed the murder 

weapon.

(c) Finally, to the extent that Walker argues that the evidence 

was insufficient as a matter of constitutional due process to 

authorize a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt 

that Walker was guilty of each of the four crimes of which he was 

convicted, we disagree.7 In evaluating whether the evidence at trial 

was sufficient as a matter of due process under the Fourteenth 

Amendment of the United States Constitution, this Court considers 

whether a rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty 

beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 

319 (III) (B) (99 SCt 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979). In performing this 

evaluation, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the 

verdicts, leaving “to the jury the resolution of conflicts or 

 7 The trial court sentenced Walker for malice murder, OCGA § 16-5-1 (a); 

possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, OCGA § 16-11-106; 

making terroristic threats, OCGA § 16-11-37; and possession of a firearm by a 

convicted felon, OCGA § 16-11-131. In his appellate brief, Walker did not argue

how the State’s evidence was insufficient as to the various elements of the 

crimes of which he was convicted; rather, Walker asserted generally that the 

evidence was insufficient to identify him as the man who shot Ferguson. 
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inconsistencies in the evidence, credibility of witnesses, and 

reasonable inferences to be made from the evidence.” Rodriguez v. 

State, 309 Ga. 542, 546 (1) (847 SE2d 303) (2020) (citation and 

punctuation omitted). 

In addition to the direct evidence set forth in Division 2 (b) 

above, Walker’s conviction for murder was supported by witness 

testimony, surveillance and body-camera video recordings, ballistic 

evidence, and evidence of Walker’s motive and efforts to destroy 

evidence. The child who witnessed the shooting heard Walker and 

Ferguson arguing about money right before Walker shot Ferguson. 

Although the child said on cross-examination that he did not see the 

shooting, when called by the State to testify again, he confirmed that 

he had witnessed the shooting and that Walker had told him not to 

say anything. The child’s credibility was for the jury to determine. 

Further, another witness – one who heard the shooting and 

immediately thereafter saw a man fleeing from the scene – testified 

that she saw the 10-year-old eyewitness standing in the street near 

the victim, shouting. Moments after the shooting, a nearby high 
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school’s video surveillance camera recorded Walker running by the 

school building. Police officers recognized Walker from that video as 

the man seen threatening Ferguson the night before in an officer’s 

body camera video recording. The jury could infer from officer 

testimony, as well as the surveillance and body camera video 

recordings introduced in evidence, that Walker was the man with 

whom Ferguson had argued the night before the shooting. Walker 

also went to a friend’s house right after the shooting to wash the 

clothes he was wearing during the shooting. The jury could infer 

from this act that Walker intended to remove evidence of blood or 

gunpowder residue from his clothing. And, after Walker admitted 

shooting Ferguson, he showed the police where he had discarded the 

murder weapon. The police also found .45-caliber ammunition in 

Walker’s home. For these reasons, we see no error in the trial court’s 

ruling that the evidence was sufficient beyond a reasonable doubt to 

support each of Walker’s convictions. Therefore, we affirm.

Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.