Opinion ID: 1060569
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Murder Committed During Felony

Text: The jury also found that the murder of Erica Hurd was committed while the defendant was engaged in committing, or was an accomplice in the commission of, or was attempting to commit, or was fleeing after having committed or attempted to commit any first degree murder, rape, burglary or kidnapping. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(7)(Supp.1994). [9] Morris argues that the evidence was insufficient to support this aggravating circumstance because the evidence did not reveal that a felony was committed during the murder of Erica Hurd and the jury made no findings in this regard. In State v. Terry, 813 S.W.2d 420 (Tenn.1991), we discussed the application of this aggravating circumstance and the issue of whether the evidence supports a finding that another felony has been committed during a murder: Whether the evidence supports a finding that the murder was committed in the course of, during, or while engaged in the commission of another felony . . . generally depends on an analysis of the temporal, spatial and motivational relationships between the capital homicide and the collateral felony, as well as on the nature of the felony and the identity of its victim. Terry, 813 S.W.2d at 423. In Terry , the defendant had been stealing money from his church congregation over a period of months and then subsequently killed a church employee. We found that the evidence did not support a finding of a nexus between the murder and the perpetration of a larceny. In contrast, we observed that the aggravating circumstance had been properly applied in numerous cases where the murder involved the victim of the felony, a witness to the felony, or a police officer attempting to apprehend the defendant after the commission of the felony, and was committed within close temporal proximity to the commission of the aggravating felony. Id. at 424; see also State v. Hall, 958 S.W.2d 679, 693 (Tenn.1997), cert. denied, 524 U.S. 941, 118 S.Ct. 2348, 141 L.Ed.2d 718 (1998)(applying Terry and concluding that the aggravating circumstance was applicable because the felony of arson was committed when the defendant murdered the victim by setting fire to the car she occupied). Moreover, although the analysis must focus upon the relationship between the felony and the murder, it is not required that the felony be committed either before or contemporaneously with the murder. See State v. Wright, 756 S.W.2d 669, 673 (Tenn.1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1034, 109 S.Ct. 848, 102 L.Ed.2d 979 (1989)(where evidence showed two killings occurred within short period of time, precise sequence was not dispositive of whether aggravating circumstance was applicable); State v. Jones, 288 S.C. 1, 340 S.E.2d 782, 784 (1985)(rape of second victim occurred after murder but aggravating circumstance applied because the offenses were a continuous series of acts with no significant lapse of time). Here, Erica Hurd was a witness to Morris's burglary of the residence as he forced his way in at gunpoint; she was a witness to Morris's murder of Charles Ragland; and she was the victim of a kidnapping when Morris forced her into the closet. Hurd was murdered just moments after the commission of these offenses and just before Morris's aggravated rape of Angela Ragland. All of these offenses were committed at the same place, close in time, and as part of Morris's single criminal spree against these three victims. There was no distinction or separation of these offenses with regard to time, location, motivation or any other factor that would render this aggravating circumstance inapplicable. We therefore conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury's finding.