2013-M-226             State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Christopher James Hayes, Appellant.

A jury found appellant Christopher James Hayes guilty of first-degree felony murder while committing a drive-by shooting and second-degree intentional murder.  The district court convicted Hayes of first-degree felony murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment with the possibility of release. 

Hayes challenges his conviction on two grounds.  First, he argues that the record contains insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction.  Second, he contends that the court committed reversible error when it admitted testimony at trial that a witness was threatened and attacked for being a “snitch.” 

We conclude that the evidence was insufficient to prove that Hayes committed a drive-by shooting, but reject Hayes’s evidentiary challenge.  We therefore reverse Hayes’s conviction of first-degree felony murder and remand to the district court with instructions to enter a judgment of conviction and impose sentence on the second-degree intentional murder count.

               Stras (Gildea, Page, Paul Anderson, Barry Anderson, and Dietzen)

               Took no part:  Wright

[MURDER]

A11-1314,