Opinion ID: 1659535
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Felony Murder Nexus Between Felony and Murder

Text: The next issue for our determination is whether the trial court correctly overruled the defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal. The defendant contends that the court should have granted the motion with respect to the felony murder count of the indictment on the basis that there was an insufficient nexus between the kidnapping and the murder, such that the kidnapping could not have been the proximate cause of the murder. This argument is clearly without merit. The statute provides that [e]very murder ... committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any ... kidnapping ... is murder in the first degree. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-2-202(a) (1982 & Supp. 1988). Nowhere in the statute is there a requirement that the murder occur as a proximate cause of the kidnapping. The statute only requires that the murder be committed in the perpetration of a kidnapping, which is defined as the unlawful seizure, confinement, or abduction of another with the felonious intent to cause the other to be confined or detained secretly against his will. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-2-301(a) (1982 & Supp. 1988). The record clearly demonstrates that Kerrick Majors was seized in a headlock and taken to a wooded area against his will. The record also shows that during the period he was being held against his will, Kerrick was beaten and stabbed to death. As a result, it is clear that the murder of Kerrick Majors was committed in the perpetration of a kidnapping.