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People v. Thomas6/11/2002
UNPUBLISHED
Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of first-degree felony murder, MCL 750.316(1)(b), first-degree fleeing and eluding a police officer, MCL 750.479a(5), and failure to stop at the scene of a serious personal injury accident, MCL 257.617. Defendant was sentenced, as a fourth-offense habitual offender, MCL 769.12, to the mandatory term of life imprisonment without parole for the first-degree felony murder conviction, a term of twelve to twenty years for the first-degree fleeing and eluding conviction, and a term of five to fifteen years for the failure to stop at the scene of a serious personal injury accident conviction. Defendant appeals as of right and we affirm.
I.
This case involves the theft of two vehicles that resulted in a brief police chase and a fatal collision, the scene from which defendant fled on foot. On March 31, 1999, police saw a red van crossing a red traffic light on Fourteen Mile Road, east of Rochester Road, in the city of Clawson. The red van was pushing a small gray car. The patrol unit initiated its overhead lights and pulled up behind the red van. The van pushed the car into a parking lot on the north side of the road, and continued to drive east on Fourteen Mile Road. Before reaching Rochester Road, the van made a u-turn in what appeared to be a move to return to the gray car. Although the police officer had established eye contact with the van's driver, and the police car's overhead lights were still on, the van did not stop.
Instead, it paused at the parking lot where it had pushed the gray car, and then made another u-turn, again heading eastbound on Fourteen Mile Road. Unable to successfully complete the u-turn, the van drove over the curbs, sidewalks, and front yard lawns of the houses on the south side of Fourteen Mile Road. The van then headed south on Rochester Road. The police car followed with sirens and overhead lights.
Thirty-one-year-old Amy Aplin was driving in a lane ahead of the van. She stopped at that lane to make a left turn onto her residential street. The van, instead of slowing down, moved to the northbound lane, increased its speed to over sixty miles an hour, and drove south in the northbound lane.
The van struck Aplin's car that was turning left, instantly killing Aplin, and pushing her car about one hundred feet to the southeast corner of Rochester Road and Montrose Avenue. The driver fled the scene into the Royal Oak neighborhood east of Rochester Road, and was seen by different witnesses who observed his erratic behavior in running, entering backyards, jumping fences, breathing heavily, and looking over his shoulder toward Rochester Road. He was apprehended ten minutes after the collision.
II.
Defendant first argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his felony murder conviction. Specifically, defendant asserts that the evidence was insufficient to establish malice or to prove the elements of larceny for purposes of felony murder.
The test for determining whether sufficient evidence was presented to support a criminal conviction is whether the evidence, viewed in a light most favorable to the prosecution, would warrant a rational factfinder in finding that the essential elements of an offense were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. People v Nowack, 462 Mich 392, 399-400; 614 NW2d 78 (2000).
Felony murder consists of the following elements: (1) the killing of a human being, (2) with malice, (3) while committing, attempting to commit, or assisting in the commission of any of the felonies specifically enumerated in the felony murder statute, MCL 750.316. Id. at 401. Malice is defined as (1) the
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