 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
State v. Braxton11/8/1996
aching its murder conviction. We do not agree with defendant's characterization of the instructions as ambiguous.
The trial court instructed the jury on the theory of felony murder with regard to Emmanuel Oguayo as follows:
I charge for you to find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder under the theory of the Murder Felony Rule , the State must prove three things beyond a reasonable doubt: First, that the defendant, Michael Jerome Braxton, committed or attempted to commit or was acting in concert with someone who was committing or attempted to commit -- to commit robbery. . . . And, second, that while committing or attempting to commit the robbery or acting in concert with someone who was attempting or committing or attempting to commit robbery, that the defendant, Michael Jerome Braxton, killed Emmanuel Oguayo with a deadly weapon. And, third, that the defendant's act was a proximate cause of Emmanuel Oguayo's death. A proximate cause, like I have told you, is a real cause, a cause without which Emmanuel Oguayo's death would not have occurred.
Pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 14-17, "a killing is committed in the perpetration of armed robbery when there is no break in the chain of events between the taking of the victim's property and the force causing the victim's death, so that the taking and the homicide are part of the same series of events, forming one continuous transaction." State v. Handy, 331 N.C. 515, 529, 419 S.E.2d 545, 552 (1992).
After being instructed on the possible verdicts in the murder of Donald Bryant, the jury was instructed separately on the robberies of Bryant, Oguayo and Walker. The trial court instructed the jury so that the connection between the robbery of Oguayo and his murder was clear to the jury and in such a manner that there was no reliance on the robberies of Walker or Bryant as the underlying felony on the theory of felony murder. When viewed in their entirety, the instructions clearly informed the jury that the felony underlying the Oguayo felony murder conviction was the robbery of Mr. Oguayo and no other. Thus, we find no error, and this assignment of error is overruled.
For the foregoing reasons, we hold that defendant received a fair trial, free from prejudicial error.
NO ERROR.
|