## Facts

- A woman offered Thai Do Hoang $1,000 to burn a Wichita building that housed a restaurant/club; neither the building’s owner nor the operators authorized the fire.
- Hoang recruited three accomplices: Dung Anh Tran, Thuong Nguyen, and a man known as “Soubong.”
- In the early morning of October 8, 1986, the group went to the building; Hoang broke a window and passed gasoline containers inside while he remained outside with Soubong.
- A fire started; Hoang waited for the two men inside to return, then left with Soubong after hearing sirens as firefighters arrived.
- Firefighters found Tran dead in the building; Nguyen was found seriously injured and died the next day, apparently from smoke inhalation.
- Investigators found arson indicators at the origin, including pour patterns, gasoline and containers, and timing-delay devices.
- Hoang was arrested the next day with $500 in one pocket and $111 in another; after Miranda warnings, he admitted involvement in the burglary/arson but denied it was done for money.
- Hoang was charged with two counts of felony murder, plus burglary and arson.

## Issues

1. Whether Kansas’s felony-murder statute, K.S.A. 21-3401, applies when the persons killed during the perpetration of the underlying felony are accomplices/co-felons of the defendant.

## Decision

- The Kansas Supreme Court reversed the dismissal of the felony-murder counts and remanded.
- The court held that K.S.A. 21-3401 does not exclude the killing of a co-felon from felony-murder liability under the facts presented.
- The district court erred by dismissing the felony-murder charges at the preliminary hearing stage based solely on the accomplice status of the decedents.

## Legal Principles

- Under K.S.A. 21-3401, first-degree felony murder includes a killing “committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate any felony.”
- Absent express statutory language limiting felony murder to nonparticipants, courts will not read an accomplice-victim exclusion into the statute.
- The deterrence and accountability rationales of felony murder support liability when dangerous felonies create lethal risks to anyone present, including co-felons.

## Conclusion

Kansas law permits felony-murder charges when an accomplice dies during the commission or attempted commission of the underlying felony, and the felony-murder counts against Hoang were reinstated for further proceedings.


State v. Hoang, 755 P.2d 7 (Kan. 1988)