## Facts

- Fred Adams and two accomplices broke into a gasoline filling station in Campbell, Missouri, at night and removed property, returning for more.
- Night Marshal Clarence Green, City Marshal Rodney Brown, and two others arrived while the burglary was in progress; the three burglars fled into nearby woods.
- Brown pursued behind Green in darkness; a shot was fired from in front of Green, followed by several shots from an oblique direction, described as rapid and consistent with an automatic shotgun.
- Green suffered numerous shotgun wounds to the chest and face and died almost immediately; his flashlight and revolver were found near where he fell.
- During escape, Adams discarded weapons by throwing a rifle and revolver into a river.
- After arrest in Arkansas, Adams made statements to officers and later retraced the route with them, providing details used by the State as a confession connecting him to the burglary and the circumstances of the shooting.
- At trial, Adams conceded participation in the burglary but argued the burglary had been abandoned at the time of the shooting, that he was merely fleeing, and that another burglar shot Green.
- A jury convicted Adams of first-degree murder on a felony-murder theory and imposed the death penalty.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to submit first-degree murder to the jury on the theory that Adams fired the fatal shot or was otherwise legally responsible.
2. Whether Adams could be convicted of first-degree murder if an accomplice fired the fatal shot, based on a common design to use deadly force to facilitate escape after burglary.
3. Whether the killing occurred “in the perpetration or attempted perpetration” of burglary when it happened during immediate flight from the scene.
4. Whether instructions improperly defined the “perpetration” of burglary to include asportation of stolen property and the continuation of the crime until the burglars achieved unmolested dominion over the property.

## Decision

- The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence.
- The court held there was substantial evidence from which a jury could find that Adams fired the fatal shot.
- The court further held that, even if Adams was not the shooter, the evidence supported liability for felony murder based on a shared plan to kill anyone who threatened the burglars’ escape.
- The court held the homicide occurred in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of burglary because it was part of a continuous transaction, including immediate flight, and thus within the res gestae of the burglary.
- Any error in instructions suggesting burglary’s perpetration included asportation was not prejudicial; it narrowed the State’s basis for conviction and therefore favored Adams.

## Legal Principles

- A first-degree murder charge may be submitted where there is substantial evidence the defendant either committed the killing or participated in a felonious enterprise under circumstances supporting liability for a killing committed in furtherance of that enterprise.
- An accomplice to burglary may be convicted of felony murder for a killing committed by a confederate if the evidence permits a finding of a common design to use deadly force to prevent capture or facilitate escape.
- A homicide is committed “in the perpetration or attempted perpetration” of a felony when it occurs within the res gestae of the felony as part of a continuous transaction, including immediate flight from the scene to avoid detection or arrest.
- Burglary is complete upon breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony; asportation is not an element of burglary, and an instruction adding asportation to the theory of “perpetration” is not reversible absent prejudice.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed Adams’s first-degree felony-murder conviction and death sentence, holding the evidence supported liability either as shooter or as an accomplice under a common design, and that the killing during immediate flight was within the burglary’s perpetration as part of a continuous transaction.


State v. Adams, 339 Mo. 926, 98 S.W.2d 632 (Mo. 1936)