## Facts

- J.T. Melendrez and his girlfriend, Angel Ortega, stopped at a convenience store; Melendrez left his firearm in the car.
- Eric Marquez drove into the parking lot, yelled from his truck, and shot the unarmed Melendrez once from inside the vehicle and twice after exiting.
- Melendrez died from the gunshot wounds.
- The State charged Marquez with shooting from a motor vehicle causing great bodily harm and first-degree felony murder, using the shooting-from-a-motor-vehicle offense as the predicate felony.
- A jury convicted Marquez of both offenses; to avoid double jeopardy, the district court vacated the separate shooting-from-a-motor-vehicle conviction and sentenced Marquez on felony murder.

## Issues

1. Whether shooting at or from a motor vehicle may serve as the predicate felony for first-degree felony murder, given the requirement that the predicate felony be independent of the homicide.
2. Whether the district court erred by excluding evidence of prior drive-by shootings at Marquez’s home.
3. Whether the felony-murder and self-defense instructions omitted essential elements regarding the State’s burden to disprove self-defense or sufficient provocation.
4. Whether admitting the Medical Investigator’s testimony violated the Confrontation Clause.

## Decision

- The court vacated Marquez’s felony-murder conviction.
- The court held that shooting at or from a motor vehicle may not serve as the predicate felony for felony murder.
- The court rejected Marquez’s claims regarding the evidentiary ruling, jury instructions, and Confrontation Clause.
- The court remanded for an amended judgment reinstating the conviction for shooting from a motor vehicle and for resentencing on that offense.

## Legal Principles

- Felony murder requires a predicate felony that is independent of, or collateral to, the homicide.
- A predicate felony that is integral to the killing, or that consists of the assaultive act that causes death, cannot be used to convert the homicide into felony murder.
- Assaultive offenses that collapse into the homicidal act (including shooting at or from a motor vehicle causing great bodily harm) are not eligible predicate felonies for felony murder.
- When a felony-murder conviction fails because the predicate felony is legally ineligible, the proper remedy may include reinstatement of the underlying felony conviction and resentencing on that conviction.

## Conclusion

The court limited felony-murder liability by ruling that shooting at or from a motor vehicle is an assaultive offense inseparable from the killing and therefore cannot serve as a felony-murder predicate; it vacated the felony-murder conviction and ordered reinstatement and resentencing on the shooting-from-a-motor-vehicle conviction.


State v. Marquez, 376 P.3d 815 (N.M. 2016)