State v. Branch

We granted certification primarily to consider whether a defendant may be convicted of felony murder on the basis of an uncharged predicate felony. A jury convicted defendant, Horace Branch, of the felony murder of a man caught in the cross-fire of a drug-related shootout. Defendant was charged with three separate acts of robbery that could have served as predicates to the felony-murder conviction under N.J.S.A. 2C:ll-3. He was acquitted of each of these robbery charges. The Appellate Division concluded that the jury could have found that defendant was guilty of robbing a fourth victim, who…