State v. Wood

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 1182

Syllabus

Felony murder; improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation; jury instructions; independent intervening cause of death; sufficiency of the evidence; manifest weight of the evidence. Defendant's conviction for felony murder in this drive-by-shooting case is affirmed. Defendant and two accomplices fired over 30 shots into a house from their car. One person in the house died of a gunshot wound. Defendant was not entitled to a jury instruction about independent intervening cause of death, even though the evidence showed that return gunfire from inside the house may have been the immediate cause of death of the victim. Under felony murder, the direct cause of death is irrelevant if the proximate cause of death is the defendant's commission of the underlying felony, which in this case was improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation. It is foreseeable, natural and logical that firing a gun into an occupied structure might kill someone. Four of the five convictions for improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation are reversed based on insufficient evidence. The State charged the defendant with one count of this offense for each individual who was inside the house when the shooting took place. A jury convicted the defendant of five counts of this offense. However, this court has held that the offense is a crime against the habitation, not a crime against a person. One house was shot into in this case, and this supports one count of the offense.