## Facts

- Cole Allen Wilkins had briefly worked at a residential construction site where a house was being built and building materials and appliances had been delivered.
- In the early morning, Wilkins returned and burglarized the site, loading boxed appliances and fixtures into the bed of his pickup truck and smaller items into the cab.
- Wilkins left the tailgate down and did not tie down the load, despite having tie-downs available.
- About 60 miles away on a freeway, a stolen stove fell from Wilkins’s truck into traffic.
- A driver, David Piquette, swerved to avoid the stove, lost control, crashed into a tractor-trailer combination, and was killed.
- Wilkins continued driving; the prosecution theory was that he was still fleeing from the burglary to unload and conceal the property and had obscured his license plate to avoid detection.
- A jury convicted Wilkins of first-degree murder under the felony-murder rule with residential burglary as the predicate felony and he was sentenced to 25 years to life.
- The trial court instructed on a continuous-transaction theory but refused Wilkins’s requested instruction that the felony ends once the perpetrator reaches a place of temporary safety.

## Issues

1. Whether substantial evidence supported felony-murder liability on a continuous-transaction theory when the fatal collision occurred about 60 miles from the burglary scene.
2. Whether the trial court erred by refusing an instruction that, for felony-murder purposes, the predicate felony continues only until the perpetrator reaches a place of temporary safety.
3. Whether a 25-years-to-life sentence for felony murder was cruel or unusual under federal or state constitutional standards.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction and sentence.
- The court held substantial evidence supported that the homicide and burglary were part of one continuous transaction.
- The court held the trial court did not err by refusing the temporary-safety (escape rule) instruction because the continuous-transaction instruction adequately described the felony’s duration for felony-murder purposes.
- The court rejected the proportionality challenge to the 25-years-to-life term.

## Legal Principles

- The felony-murder rule imposes strict liability for a killing committed during the commission of an enumerated felony, including accidental or negligent killings, to deter dangerous felony conduct.
- For felony-murder purposes, the predicate felony and the homicide must be part of a single continuous transaction; the jury may consider whether the defendant was still in flight and acting to retain and transport the stolen property.
- A continuous-transaction instruction may be sufficient to define the temporal scope of felony-murder liability without a separate instruction that the felony ends upon reaching a place of temporary safety.
- In proportionality review, courts consider the nature of the offense and the offender, including the defendant’s criminal history and the risks created by the felony conduct.

## Conclusion

The Court of Appeal upheld Wilkins’s felony-murder conviction for a freeway death caused by an unsecured stolen stove falling from his truck during his escape from a residential burglary, concluding the evidence supported a continuous-transaction theory, the temporary-safety instruction was not required given the instructions provided, and the 25-years-to-life sentence was constitutional.


People v. Wilkins, 191 Cal. App. 4th 780 (Cal. Ct. App. 2011)