Defendant was
charged with first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, and other
offenses for fatally stabbing Marie McMillan in her apartment and hours later
returning to the apartment and setting it on fire. The police investigation led
to defendant because on the day of the fire he had been knocking on the apartment
doors of the victim’s neighbors and using a fake story to solicit money. During
police interrogation, defendant admitted trying to solicit money from the
victim, but claimed that she attacked him and that he responded by stabbing her
multiple times. At trial, the prosecutor argued that the number and type of
knife wounds and other evidence surrounding the crime demonstrated that
defendant had the opportunity to take a second look sufficient to establish
premeditation and deliberation. The jury convicted defendant of both
premeditated murder and felony murder. On appeal, in a published opinion, the
Court of Appeals held that there was insufficient evidence of premeditation,
reduced defendant’s first-degree premeditated murder conviction to
second-degree murder, and remanded for resentencing. The Court of Appeals also reversed
defendant’s felony murder conviction, holding that the instructions to the jury
were flawed, and remanded for a new trial on that conviction. The prosecution appealed
to the Supreme Court, challenging the Court of Appeals ruling that there was insufficient
evidence of premeditation. The Supreme Court has directed oral argument on the
prosecution’s application for leave to appeal to address whether the Court of Appeals properly viewed
the trial record for sufficient evidence of premeditation and deliberation in the
light most favorable to the prosecution, including drawing all reasonable
inferences in favor of the jury verdict, and whether the record evidence is
sufficient to sustain defendant’s first-degree premeditated murder conviction. See
People v Gonzalez, 468 Mich 636, 640-641 (2003).