State v. Murphy

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Larson, J.:

The State of Kansas appeals from the trial court’s downward departure from the sentencing guidelines for aggravated robbery and kidnapping and on a question reserved of the trial court’s dismissal of first-degree felony-murder charges. We affirm the trial court on the departure and deny the appeal on the question reserved.

The trial court relied on the following facts established in the preliminary hearing in dismissing the felony-murder charge.

In the early morning hours of May 27, 1998, Dustin Welch, Jimmy Johnson, and Maurice Murphy entered…