Court Opinion

ID: 9674826
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:36:04.748367+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:29.886880
License: Public Domain

V. J. Brennan, P.J.
(dissenting). I respectfully *560dissent. I cannot agree with the majority’s finding that defendant’s conviction must be reduced to second-degree murder because she was charged and convicted of felony murder with the underlying felony of breaking and entering an occupied dwelling instead of burglary.
The defendant did not raise an objection in the trial court to the information charging felony murder with breaking and entering as the underlying felony; the defendant did not object during the trial or during the trial court’s instruction to the jury, and the defendant did not raise the issue on appeal. This Court raised the issue sua sponte. As a matter of fact, at the preliminary examination, the defendant’s attorney objected to the information on the basis that it stated "breaking and entering an occupied dwelling”, which he contended was a misdemeanor. The information was then amended to state "breaking and entering an occupied dwelling with intent to commit a larceny”. Defendant did not contend that the information did not state a crime as defined. Since defendant made no objection to the charge or conviction on the basis of the underlying felony which supported the felony-murder charge and conviction, I would find no manifest injustice to the defendant, and no reversible error.
MCL 767.76; MSA 28.1016, states in part:
"No indictment shall be quashed, set aside or dismissed or motion to quash be sustained or any motion for delay of sentence for the purpose of review be granted, nor shall any conviction be set aside or reversed on account of any defect in form or substance of the indictment, unless the objection to such indictment, specifically stating the defect claimed, be made prior to the commencement of the trial or at such time thereafter as the court shall in its discretion permit. The court may at any time before, during or after the trial amend the indictment in respect to any defect, imperfection or *561omission in form or substance of or any variance with the evidence.”
Based upon the foregoing provision, the Court, in People v Southwick, 272 Mich 258, 264; 261 NW 320 (1935), held that a claim of error in the information, raised for the first time on appeal, will not be considered. Moreover, this Court has found that a defendant’s claim that the information does not state a crime pursuant to the statute will not be considered where that objection was not raised in the trial court. People v Kildow, 19 Mich App 194; 172 NW2d 492 (1969), lv den 383 Mich 803 (1970). Also, see People v Walsh, 27 Mich App 100; 183 NW2d 360 (1970). Therefore, I would find that we should not review the issue of whether defendant was properly charged. Furthermore, I do not think that we should review the issue of whether the defendant was properly convicted. In People v Horton (On Remand), 107 Mich App 739, 742; 310 NW2d 34 (1981), this Court found no reversible error where the defendant was convicted of felony murder even though the trial court had instructed the jury on criminal sexual conduct rather than common-law rape as the underlying felony. Based upon the foregoing, I would find that the issue should not be reviewed by this Court, or in the alternative, there was no manifest injustice to the defendant since the facts clearly show that defendant committed first-degree murder standing alone without mention of the underlying felony. She was confronted by the deceased outside of the deceased’s home. She shot the deceased several times, got out of her car and shot him several more times before she drove away. Everything was present here, premeditation, motive, and intent.
I would affirm defendant’s conviction for felony murder.