In general, first degree murder charges are reserved for those who intentionally caused another person's death "with malice aforethought." In other words,he or she had intent to kill.
However, under Oklahoma law, there are certain situations in which a person is charged with first degree murder even if he or she had not intent to killanyone. Such is the case with felony murder, in which a person is charged with murder in the first degree a death results in the commission of a specifiedfelony. This is true even if the deceased is an accomplice in the felony that caused his or her death.
Among the felonies that warrant a first degree murder charge if a death occurs in their commission are the following:
Because Oklahoma law considers it to be an act of first degree murder if a death occurs in the commission or furtherance of a drug crime, six people havebeen charged with felony murder in the death of a woman who died of an oxycodone overdose. Among those charged is the woman's own teenage son.
Aaron "Ayjay" McNulty was only 17 years old when he allegedly obtained four oxycodone pills for his mother, 38-year-old Jennifer McNulty; he said thathe got the pills from someone at school, and reportedly told police that it was not the first time he obtained painkillers for his mother. However,the day after giving her the pills, he was unable to get in touch with her. He took off work and went to check on his mother, whom he found dead of"acute oxycodone toxicity."
Jennifer McNulty's death launched an investigation last October into the chain of distribution that led to her receipt of the illegal prescription drugsand, ultimately, her overdose death.
Now, investigators have charged six people, including Ayjay McNulty, with first degree murder.
Although the teen was only 17 years old when his mother died, under Oklahoma law, anyone aged 15, 16, or 17 who is charged with first degree murder willbe charged as an adult. If convicted, the teen, now 18, faces life in prison as a contributor to his mother's death by illegally providing her withoxycodone.
What do you think? Does a first degree murder conviction seem like justice for a teenager who supplied his mother with the drugs on which she later overdosed?
