## Facts

- Linda Lee Smith lived with her two young daughters and David Foster.
- After the younger child disobeyed an instruction about where to sit while eating, Smith took the child to a bedroom and began disciplining her.
- Evidence at trial indicated Smith repeatedly struck the child, knocking her down; Foster also participated in the beating.
- Testimony described the use of hands and a paddle; the child was also struck in the head, including after an object was placed on her head.
- During the incident, the child fell backward and hit her head; she suffered respiratory arrest, was taken to a hospital, and died that evening.
- Smith admitted she had “beat her too hard,” but the extent of her actions relative to Foster’s was disputed.
- The prosecution pursued second-degree murder on a felony-murder theory, using felony child abuse as the predicate felony.

## Issues

1. Whether felony child abuse, when based on the assaultive conduct that caused the death, may serve as the predicate felony for second-degree felony murder or instead merges with the homicide.
2. How to distinguish a felony that is an integral part of the homicide from a felony committed with an independent felonious purpose for felony-murder purposes.

## Decision

- The court held that felony child abuse based on the fatal assaultive conduct was included in fact within, and an integral part of, the homicide and therefore merged with the killing.
- Because the felony merged, it could not serve as the predicate felony for second-degree felony murder, making the felony-murder instruction erroneous.
- The court reversed the judgment to the extent it convicted Smith of second-degree murder on a felony-murder theory.
- The child-abuse-related convictions were left intact, and the matter was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion, including resentencing without the felony-murder component.

## Legal Principles

- An assaultive felony that is included in fact within the homicide and forms an integral part of the killing cannot serve as a predicate felony for felony murder (merger doctrine).
- Even if a felony is factually included in and integral to the homicide, courts must also ask whether the homicide resulted from conduct with an independent felonious purpose; absence of such a purpose supports merger.
- Felony murder is aimed at deterring negligent or accidental killings during the commission of a felony; applying it to the very assault that causes death extends the doctrine beyond its rational function.
- Where merger applies, the prosecution must proceed under traditional homicide principles and prove the required mental state for murder rather than relying on felony murder.

## Conclusion

The court limited second-degree felony murder by holding that assaultive felony child abuse merges with a resulting homicide when the abuse is the fatal act itself, requiring reversal of a murder conviction that rested on felony-murder instructions using that merged felony as the predicate.


People v. Smith, 35 Cal. 3d 798, 678 P.2d 886 (Cal. 1984)