Opinion ID: 2067285
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Charging Errors

Text: Jackson contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the charges of felony-murder and robbery as a class A felony. He asserts that the charges should have been dismissed because he and Kennedy did not kill Michelle Seagraves while committing [1] the robbery and because the robbery did not result in serious bodily injury [2] to anyone. The general phrase results in does not render the robbery statute ambiguous. Bailey v. State (1980), 274 Ind. 318, 322, 412 N.E.2d 56, 59. If an injury to any other person arises as a consequence of the conduct of the accused in committing a robbery, the offense is properly regarded as a class A felony. Id. The while committing language in the murder statute is equally broad. See generally Mahone v. State (1989), Ind., 541 N.E.2d 278. When a killing and a robbery are so closely connected in time, place, and continuity of action as to constitute one continuous transaction, a jury is justified in finding that the perpetrator is guilty of felony murder even if the killing actually occurred before the robbery. See id. at 280; Thompson v. State (1982), Ind., 441 N.E.2d 192, 194. The evidence in this case shows that Michelle Seagraves was kidnapped and murdered so that Kennedy and Jackson could use her car as transportation to and from the robbery of the Peoples Bank in Moores Hill. Jackson told Detective Sorrell that they robbed the bank a few minutes after Seagraves was killed. Record at 5195 (statement at 31). Her murder was a consequence of the plan to commit robbery, and the two events were closely connected in time, place, and action. The trial court correctly denied Jackson's motion to dismiss.