Campbell v. State

Anthony Campbell (defendant) and another man (the co-felon) got into a cab one evening and instructed the driver to take them to a street full of deserted buildings. The co-felon then took out a gun and ordered the taxi driver to give them all his money. Campbell told the driver to do as his co-felon asked, saying he also had a gun. After the taxi driver complied with their request, Campbell’s co-felon instructed the driver to drive to a new location so they could kill him because he had seen their faces. As the driver complied, he saw a couple of police cars in the road ahead. He hit the brakes alongside one police car, at which time Campbell’s co-felon opened fire on the taxi driver. The driver returned fire with his own gun, and both the co-felon and the driver were wounded. Police officers came to the driver’s assistance, shooting at Campbell and his co-felon, both of whom left the taxi and ran. Campbell hid in a nearby vestibule, but his co-felon was pursued by police officers and shot several more times. Campbell’s co-felon died from bullet wounds, although the autopsy could not determine whether shots by police or the taxi driver had killed him. Campbell was arrested and pled guilty to first-degree felony murder of a co-felon, among other charges. The trial court accepted Campbell’s plea and convicted him. Campbell later appealed his first-degree-murder conviction.