## Facts

- Jerrett Lee Anderson, a convicted felon prohibited from possessing firearms, obtained a stolen, sawed-off (stockless), pump-action 12-gauge shotgun.
- Anderson brought the shotgun to his friend Blake Rogers’s home.
- Anderson showed Rogers the shotgun; Rogers noticed it was loaded.
- Anderson then pointed the loaded shotgun at Rogers from only a few feet away.
- The shotgun discharged and killed Rogers; Anderson maintained the shooting was accidental.
- The State charged Anderson with unintentional second-degree felony murder, alleging Rogers’s death occurred while Anderson was committing felonies, including (1) possession of a firearm by an ineligible person (felon in possession) and (2) possession of a stolen firearm.
- The district court dismissed the felony-murder count for lack of probable cause, reasoning that the alleged predicate felonies could not support felony murder on these facts.
- The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed and reinstated the felony-murder count.
- Anderson sought further review in the Minnesota Supreme Court, challenging the reinstatement of the felony-murder charge.

## Issues

1. Whether Minnesota’s unintentional second-degree felony-murder statute permits the predicate felony to be felon in possession of a firearm and/or possession of a stolen firearm when the conduct, as carried out, created a danger to human life.
2. Whether probable cause supported the felony-murder count after the district court dismissed it, given the circumstances surrounding Anderson’s handling and pointing of a loaded shotgun.

## Decision

- The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeals and held that a predicate felony may support felony murder only if, in the way it was carried out, it created a danger to human life.
- Applying that standard, the court concluded probable cause supported the felony-murder charge because Anderson’s conduct—possessing a loaded shotgun and pointing it at Rogers from close range—created a danger to human life.
- The case was returned to the district court with the felony-murder count reinstated for further proceedings.

## Legal Principles

- For unintentional second-degree felony murder in Minnesota, the predicate felony must, as carried out in the specific case, be dangerous to human life; courts do not decide the question solely by labeling the felony in the abstract.
- The “dangerous to human life” inquiry focuses on what the defendant did during the felony (the manner of commission), including use or handling of a weapon and the foreseeability of serious injury or death from that conduct.
- Firearm-possession felonies are not automatically excluded as predicates for felony murder; they may qualify when the defendant’s handling or use of the firearm during the possession offense creates a danger to human life.
- In reviewing dismissal of a charge for lack of probable cause, the question is whether the record shows a sufficient basis to proceed, not whether the State has proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

## Conclusion

State v. Anderson holds that Minnesota’s felony-murder doctrine requires the predicate felony to be dangerous to human life in the way it was committed, and that this requirement can be met by felon-in-possession and stolen-firearm possession when the defendant’s conduct—such as pointing a loaded shotgun at a person from close range—creates a danger of death, supporting probable cause for an unintentional second-degree felony-murder charge.


State v. Anderson, 654 N.W.2d 367, 666 N.W.2d 696 (2003)