## Facts

- Tracy Stewart, addicted to crack cocaine, engaged in a prolonged drug binge over roughly 48 hours while responsible for her four-month-old son.
- During this period, she repeatedly left the child alone in a third-floor apartment for extended intervals while seeking and using crack cocaine.
- The infant, entirely dependent on Stewart for food and fluids, received inadequate care and was later found severely dehydrated and malnourished.
- Medical evidence established the child died from dehydration caused by lack of fluids and care rather than an independent disease process.
- The State charged Stewart with second-degree felony murder predicated on the felony of permitting a child to be a habitual sufferer, along with related child neglect offenses.
- A jury convicted Stewart of second-degree felony murder and the underlying child-neglect felony; the trial court denied her motion for judgment of acquittal on felony murder.

## Issues

1. Whether “inherently dangerous” for felony-murder purposes is determined by examining the felony’s statutory elements in the abstract or by examining the manner and circumstances of its commission.
2. Whether permitting a child to be a habitual sufferer, as committed in this case, qualified as an inherently dangerous felony sufficient to support second-degree felony murder.

## Decision

- The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Stewart’s motion for judgment of acquittal.
- The court upheld the second-degree felony-murder conviction.
- The court held that inherent dangerousness may be evaluated based on the facts of the particular case, including the manner and circumstances in which the felony was committed.
- Applying that approach, the court held the underlying felony was inherently dangerous to human life as committed here, where Stewart effectively abandoned a helpless infant during a prolonged drug binge and the infant died of dehydration.

## Legal Principles

- For felony-murder purposes, a felony’s “inherently dangerous” character may be determined by considering the manner and circumstances of the felony’s commission, not solely the felony’s statutory elements.
- A felony that is not categorically dangerous in all applications may still qualify as inherently dangerous when committed in a way that creates a grave risk of death.
- Extreme child neglect that deprives a wholly dependent infant of necessary care and fluids for a prolonged period can constitute an inherently dangerous predicate felony when the death results from that neglect.
- When the evidence permits a rational fact-finder to conclude the predicate felony, as committed, posed a serious danger to human life, a felony-murder conviction may be sustained.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed Stewart’s second-degree felony-murder conviction, holding that Rhode Island assesses a predicate felony’s inherent dangerousness by the facts of its commission and that Stewart’s prolonged, drug-driven neglect of an infant—resulting in death by dehydration—satisfied that standard.


State v. Stewart, 663 A.2d 912 (R.I. 1995)