Green v. State

The appellant, Andre Green, appeals from his convictions for felony murder and arson stemming from the death of Frances McKeller.1 On appeal, Green contends that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions and that the trial court erred in sentencing him for the arson conviction since arson served as the underlying felony for the felony murder conviction. Although we conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support Green’s conviction for felony murder, we also conclude that the trial court erred in sentencing Green on the arson conviction. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s judgment in part and vacate it in part. The evidence at trial would have authorized a jury to find that Green rented a downstairs room in the house of the victim and that, on the evening of March 9, 2005, Allen Young and David Evans, two of McKeller’s neighbors, noticed that her home was on fire. Young and Evans knocked on the front door, but nobody answered. Young then broke a window and unlocked the front door. Young stated that he could see smoke in the downstairs part of the house and that, when he entered the house, he saw Green standing in the victim’s living room. Young asked Green where the victim was, and Green responded that he thought she was upstairs. Young then asked Green whether he knew the house was on fire, and Green stated that he did not know because he had been asleep. Young added that Green was wearing shoes and was completely dressed, that he did not look like he had been just awakened, and that Green’s bed was neatly made and did not look like it had been recently slept on. Young added that, at that point, the ceiling above Green’s bed began to bubble and fall down. Young then asked Green how to get to the victim’s room, and Green led Young to the door leading upstairs and knocked on it. When there was no response, Young opened the door, and attempted to go upstairs. He testified, however, that thick smoke and heat kept him from being able to go upstairs.

David Evans testified essentially to the same sequence of events as Young, reiterating that when he and Young went into the house, Green was standing in the living room and was fully dressed. Evans added that Green’s bed was made very nicely “like nobody had been in there.”