PEOPLE OF MI V AARON KIMBER
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,
UNPUBLISHED
May 2, 2000
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v
No. 206358
Recorder’s Court
LC No. 96-008776
AARON KIMBER,
Defendant-Appellant.
Before: Doctoroff, P.J., and Holbrook, Jr. and Kelly, JJ.
KELLY, J. (concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur in the majority opinion I - III, but dissent as to IV. I do not believe that there was
sufficient evidence of premeditation and deliberation presented to sustain a conviction for first-degree
premeditated murder.
Premeditation and deliberation must be shown to sustain a conviction for first-degree murder.
Premeditation is different in quality and kind from malice and is often referred to as cold-blooded
planning as opposed to the hot-blooded activity characteristically connected with a process like the one
proven in this case. People v Morrin, 31 Mich App 301, 329-331; 187 NW2d 434 (1971). The
circumstances of the killing show a victim with thirty-seven knife wounds and four different bloody
knives found at the scene. This Court has stated:
When the evidence establishes a fight, and then a killing, there must be a showing of “a
thought process undisturbed by a hot blood” in order to establish first-degree
premeditated murder. Morrin, supra at 329-330. The critical inquiry is not only
whether the defendant had the time to premeditate, but also whether he had the
capacity to do so. [People v Plummer, 229 Mich App 293, 301; 581 NW2d 753
(1998).]
Furthermore, the premeditated murder conviction was vacated by the trial court at sentencing.
The court, on the prosecution’s motion, vacated the first-degree premeditated murder conviction on
double jeopardy grounds and sentenced Mr. Kimber to mandatory life in prison on the felony murder
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conviction. See People v Bigelow I, 225 Mich App 806; 571 NW2d 520 (1997) and People v
Bigelow II, 229 Mich App 218; 581 NW2d 744 (1998).
I would affirm the judgment of conviction of felony murder and the sentence of life imprisonment
on that count only. I see no need for a remand.
/s/ Michael J. Kelly
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