Sufficiency of the evidence; Felony murder; People v Gayheart; First-degree home invasion (MCL 750.110a(2)); “Without permission” (MCL 750.110a(1)(c))

The court held that there was sufficient evidence to support defendant’s first-degree home invasion conviction, the predicate for his felony murder conviction, and thus also sufficient evidence to support the latter conviction. He asserted there was not sufficient evidence to support the felony murder conviction because there was not sufficient evidence to prove that he entered the victims’ dwelling without permission. Victim-EJ shared a home with his elderly father, victim-ES. The home had a doorbell camera system. Defendant argued that there was no “evidence indicating that the victims did not want him in the home, and” contended ES gave him permission to enter after answering the door. But the record did not support this “assertion, particularly given the yelling and screaming heard in the camera footage almost immediately after defendant entered the home. Furthermore, a person who was speaking to EJ on the phone at the time of the offense testified that EJ yelled ‘Dad, no, or no, Dad, don’t let him in,’ after which there was a ‘cacophony of . . . sounds like a scuffle,’ as well as ‘[g]runts and moans and . . . stuff being knocked around’ before EJ stopped responding. Taken in the light most favorable to the prosecution, the evidence that defendant entered the home over the protests of the occupants, combined with the lack of any evidence that [he] was welcome in the home, was sufficient to permit the jury to find that defendant had entered the home without permission and was therefore guilty of first-degree home invasion beyond a reasonable doubt.” Affirmed.