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Where a defendant convicted of second-degree felony murder argued that an instruction, which required the jury to find that a victim was killed while the felony or flight from it were under way, did not comply with the statute, Missouri courts have held that the state is only obligated to prove that each essential element of the felony was committed, not that the death occurred while those elements were being committed, so the instruction was not erroneous even though the victim was shot and later died after the defendant’s commission of the essential elements of the underlying felony.
Judgment is affirmed.
State v. Manuel (MLW No. 66648/Case No. WD75622 – 14 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Martin, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Jackson County, Schieber, J. (Richard A. Starnes and Jennifer Rodewald, Jefferson City, for respondent) (Jeannie M. Willibey, Kansas City, Missouri, for appellant).
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