A jury found Appellant Willie Lee Weaver guilty of the malice murder of his estranged wife Donna Weaver, two counts of aggravated stalking, and one count each of cruelty to children in the first degree and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime. The trial court entered judgments of conviction on those guilty verdicts and sentenced Appellant to life imprisonment for murder and to consecutive terms of ten years for each count of aggravated stalking, twenty years for cruelty to children, and five years for the weapons charge. A motion for new trial was denied, and Appellant appeals.1 1. Construed most strongly in support of the verdicts, the evidence, including extensive eyewitness testimony, shows that, after entry of a family violence protective order, Appellant was found after midnight outside the victim’s apartment with a knife and was arrested. Two weeks later, he was released on bond and, three days thereafter, he purchased a fish fillet knife with a 12-inch blade. The next day, Appellant followed the victim and her sister Norma Jones into a restaurant parking lot and attempted to talk with the victim before her brother intervened. The victim and Ms. Jones reported the incident at the police department, picked up the victim’s grandson from preschool, and went to a local grocery store. Appellant appeared at the store, yelled at the victim, and stabbed and slashed her multiple times, resulting in her death in the presence of her grandson. Appellant waited for police, stating that he would not hurt anyone else, that he came to do what he needed to do, that no one gets away with hurting him, and that the victim, whom he called by a derogatory term, deserved it because of what she did to him in court. The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Appellant was guilty of the crimes for which he was convicted. Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U.307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979; Rose v. State , 287 Ga. 238, 239 1 695 SE2d 261 2010; Lewis v. State , 277 Ga. 534, 535 1 592 SE2d 405 2004.
2. Prior to trial, the trial court ordered a mental evaluation of Appellant. Pursuant to that order, a forensic psychologist employed by the State examined Appellant and concluded, among other things, that he was provisionally competent to proceed to trial and to assist his attorney. Several months later, defense counsel obtained a separate evaluation by an independent psychologist, who determined that Appellant was competent to counsel with his attorney and to stand trial. The defense psychologist also noted in his report that Appellant’s scores on tests of malingering suggested that he was not putting forth his best effort, and he appeared to have been attempting to come across as more impaired than he truly was. When trial was held three months later, Appellant refused to dress for court and had to be brought in by eight deputies. Before and during voir dire, he yelled and screamed incoherently numerous times, tried to bite his attorney on the arm, and eventually had to be restrained and removed from the courtroom. He could still be heard screaming in the holding cell and was returned to the jail. He then would bite his thumb and cause it to bleed when he knew that he was being watched. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in failing to suspend the trial after such bizarre and psychotic behavior until a mental evaluation could ascertain that he was competent to proceed.
