## Facts

- Darrell Bodely entered a supermarket, took approximately $75 from a cash register, and ran from the store.
- Store employees pursued him into the parking lot as he entered his car to escape.
- Joseph Andre, who was in the parking lot, joined the pursuit and attempted to stop Bodely’s car by positioning himself in front of it and then reaching into the driver’s window while telling Bodely to stop.
- Bodely accelerated and sharply turned the car, striking Andre, who fell and struck the back of his head on the pavement.
- Andre died from the head injury, and Bodely drove away.
- The theft was prosecuted as burglary (entry with intent to steal); the jury was also instructed on robbery and on murder theories of malice aforethought and felony murder during burglary or robbery.
- A jury convicted Bodely of first-degree murder, burglary, and an unrelated robbery; on appeal, he challenged only the murder conviction.

## Issues

1. Whether a killing that occurs during a perpetrator’s immediate flight from a burglary is committed “in the perpetration” of burglary for first-degree felony-murder liability under Penal Code § 189.
2. Whether burglary, unlike robbery, ends for felony-murder purposes upon exit from the structure, so that a death during escape falls outside the felony-murder rule.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the first-degree murder conviction.
- The court held that a homicide occurring during immediate flight from a burglary occurs “in the perpetration” of the burglary for purposes of Penal Code § 189.
- The court treated the burglary and escape as one continuous transaction and concluded the felony-murder rule applies until the perpetrator reaches a place of temporary safety.

## Legal Principles

- For felony murder under Penal Code § 189, “perpetration” of burglary includes the escape phase when the homicide and felony are part of one continuous event.
- The felony-murder rule continues through immediate flight and ends only when the perpetrator reaches a place of temporary (temporal) safety.
- Felony-murder duration is not limited to the moment the felony’s technical elements are satisfied; the relevant inquiry is whether the killing occurred during the continuous transaction of committing and escaping from the felony.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Bodely’s first-degree felony-murder conviction, ruling that a death caused during immediate flight from a burglary is committed “in the perpetration” of the burglary and remains within the felony-murder rule until the perpetrator reaches a place of temporary safety.


People v. Bodely, 32 Cal. App. 4th 311 (Cal. Ct. App. 1995)