## Facts

- Michael Desmar Losey went to James Harper’s Columbus, Ohio home late at night, received no response, forced open the front door, and attempted to remove a bicycle.
- A friend warned a car was approaching; Losey left the bicycle near the door and departed, leaving the front door open.
- Around 1:00 a.m., Harper heard a noise; he and his elderly mother discovered the open door and bicycle by the entry.
- Harper told his mother to return to her bedroom while he checked the house; after checking, he began calling police.
- Harper’s mother appeared upset, collapsed, and could not be revived; she was pronounced dead.
- The victim had significant pre-existing heart disease and multiple prior heart attacks.
- A deputy coroner opined (based on the victim’s condition and the night’s events) that coronary thrombosis was precipitated by emotion.
- Losey waived a jury trial, admitted aggravated burglary, but contested involuntary manslaughter; the trial court convicted him of both.

## Issues

1. Whether the victim’s heart-attack death was the “proximate result” of Losey’s aggravated burglary under R.C. 2903.04(A) despite no direct physical confrontation.
2. Whether a victim’s serious pre-existing heart disease prevents a finding of proximate causation for involuntary manslaughter.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the involuntary manslaughter conviction.
- “Proximate result” in R.C. 2903.04 incorporates foreseeability; liability attaches only when consequences are direct, normal, and reasonably inevitable in ordinary experience.
- An elderly occupant’s fatal heart attack triggered by emotional shock from discovering a nighttime break-in can be a proximate result of the burglary even without face-to-face contact.
- The evidence, including expert testimony linking the death to emotion precipitated by the burglary-related events, was sufficient to support causation.

## Legal Principles

- Under R.C. 2903.04, “proximate result” includes foreseeability; the death must be a direct, normal, and reasonably inevitable consequence of the defendant’s conduct when viewed in light of ordinary experience.
- Involuntary manslaughter requires more than but-for causation; the causal chain must not be too remote and must be supported by evidence connecting the felony to the death.
- Lack of direct physical confrontation does not bar proximate causation where the felony foreseeably causes severe emotional shock leading to death.
- A victim’s pre-existing medical vulnerability does not, by itself, sever causation when the defendant’s felony-induced emotional shock is shown to have precipitated the fatal event.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Losey’s involuntary manslaughter conviction, concluding that the foreseeable emotional shock from a nighttime aggravated burglary could proximately cause an elderly, medically vulnerable victim’s fatal heart attack, even without direct physical confrontation.


State v. Losey, 23 Ohio App. 3d 93 (Ohio Ct. App. 10th Dist. 1985)