Opinion ID: 1300890
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: defendant smith's second issue

Text: In defendant Smith's second assignment of error, he contends that the trial court erred by denying his request for a jury instruction on the issue raised during the prosecutor's argument wherein the prosecutor indicated that the victim was killed during the first volley of shots. Defendant Smith argues that if the evidence supported the theory argued to the jury by the prosecutor, he could not have acted in concert in the killing of the victim because it is not criminal homicide to shoot a dead body. Defendant Smith also contends that since the argument was made to the jury, and he requested a curative instruction at the appropriate time, the trial court committed reversible error by not giving the instruction and this action was clearly prejudicial. The portions of the prosecutor's argument at issue are as follows: And I submit to you, probably the first shot was Number 14 here, that was kicked back away from the other line of five, and the shooter then steps over as the car is pulling away and shoots again and again and again and again. There is a projectile that's found on the ground that you looked at, Number 8. The expert could not say, and candidly would not say that it was a 10mm, because he didn't have the opportunity to look at it under his laboratory conditions. .... I submit to you that this projectile right here, Number 8, was fired from this 10mm gun as the car was speeding away. And yes, indeed, it did strike something, either the street or the bumper or the undercarriage. The bumper and the undercarriage all of which, from your own common experience and sense you know, it's very, very hard metal, not like a door frame, and not like the back of a truck bed behind the seat that can be pierced. This is where the fatal bullet was fired from right here. These marks on the pavement, I submit to you, are the scratch marks where the car sped away at or after the first shot that struck Mr. Thomas [the victim] while he was like this. The doctor said it would not be unusual for someone to be able to live and function two or three minutes after being struck in such manner. .... What they did not know, I submit to you, is that the first bullet was the one that did the damage. And their attempt to either run Mr. Wallace out of the neighborhoodor Mr. Thomas [the victim] out of the neighborhood, whatever the motivation, they acted together. It's almost like running with the pack. Mr. Thomas was struck. He drove the car out. He crashed out here. And the case starts to unwind and develop at that point. Defendant Smith's argument that he could not have acted in concert in the killing of the victim because it is not criminal homicide to shoot a dead body is fatally flawed. His conviction was not based on his having acted in concert in the killing of the victim, but rather was based on his having acted in concert in the perpetration of a felony which resulted in the death of the victim. Therefore, whether the victim was dead or alive at the exact moment bullets from defendant Smith's gun entered the automobile is not necessarily determinative on a felony murder conviction. This Court has held that to support convictions for a felony offense and related felony murder, all that is required is that the elements of the underlying offense and the murder occur in a time frame that can be perceived as a single transaction. State v. Thomas, 329 N.C. 423, 434, 407 S.E.2d 141, 149 (1991). In the instant case, the murder and the underlying felony of discharging a firearm into occupied property were so connected and inextricably intertwined as to form a continuous chain of events that began when the victim was alive. The evidence showed that the victim first encountered defendants near the administration building at Groveview Terrace. They engaged in a conversation, both defendants shot at the victim as he sped away in his car, and the victim lived for a few moments before he crashed his car into a utility pole. Dr. Wolford testified that the victim could have lived several minutes before dying from the gunshot wound to the ventricle of his heart. Given that the victim was mortally wounded during a volley of gunfire from defendants' firearms, the temporal order of the fatal shot by defendant Cook and other shots fired by defendant Smith, acting in concert with Cook, is immaterial. The underlying felony and the murder occurred in a time frame that can be perceived as a single transaction. Thus, the trial judge properly refused to give defendant Smith's proposed jury instruction. NO ERROR.