Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta, Georgia. A Columbia County man serving a life sentence for a 2022 murder has lost his appeal before the Georgia Supreme Court. Anthony Alexander Burns, now 45, was convicted of felony murder in February 2024 in the beating and strangling death of 61-year-old Howard Winner. Prosecutors described Winner as a Good Samaritan who opened his home to the homeless Burns, but was killed in a dispute over a cigar. Testifying against his lawyer’s advice, Burns claimed he was coerced into fighting and slaying Winner by two of Winner’s relatives. A jury found Burns guilty of two counts of felony murder, defining separate aggravated assaults of beating and strangulation. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on a count of malice murder. In his appeal, Burns said “evidence presented at trial was constitutionally insufficient,” rendering the prosecutors’ case “wholly circumstantial.” In its ruling issued Jan. 21, the Georgia Supreme Court’s majority opinion concluded that the grounds of Burns’ appeal were without merit and failed to meet the burden of proof under the case la
