State v. Tahah, 262 P.3d 1045

Tahah, a Dodge City police officer, dated Erin Jones; he entered Jones’ home April 13 through an unsecured garage door for an explanation of their breakup.
Jones was later found dead May 4–5 from a single gunshot to the head; Tahah was implicated by investigators and his firearms/trash were seized.
Tahah gave three interviews to law enforcement (May 5, May 7, May 11); he confessed to gunfire and later recanted, claiming false confessions.
At trial, Tahah was convicted of felony murder and the underlying felony of discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling, with consecutive sentences.
The district court denied several requests, and Tahah challenged a series of evidentiary and procedural rulings on appeal.
The Supreme Court granted review and reversed on the sole issue of the lesser-included offenses, remanding for a new trial.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Lesser-included instruction for felony murder	Tahah urged second-degree unintentional murder and involuntary manslaughter.	State opposed; Berry rule did not apply to lesser offenses for felony murder at that time.	Reversed; new trial required for lack of proper lesser-included instructions.
Admissibility of third-party text messages (Elvin Mims)	Messages show motive/relationship link relevant to Mims as third party.	Messages fail to connect Mims to the murder or show motive with probative value.	District court did not abuse discretion; messages insufficiently connect Mims to the crime.
Prosecutorial misconduct in closing	Prosecutor misstated evidence by attributing to a pathologist that the weapon was high-powered and that glass fact applied.	Any misstatement was not unsupported by evidence; closing allowed reasonable inferences.	No reversible prosecutorial misconduct; misstatement acknowledged but not dispositive.
Admission of evidence under K.S.A. 60-455	Event of entering Jones' house shows motive/intent; admissible to prove state of mind.	Issue not preserved; pretrial rulings insufficient to preserve on appeal.	Not preserved for appeal.
Voluntariness of Tahah's confession	Voluntariness challenged; confessions could be involuntary.	Not preserved; failure to object at trial undermines preservation.	Not preserved for appeal.

State v. Berry, 292 Kan. 493 (2011) (felony-murder rule; lesser-included offenses in felony-murder cases)
State v. Hoffman, 288 Kan. 100 (2009) (felony murder and lesser-included offenses rule)
State v. Berry, 254 P.3d 1276 (2011) (reaffirmed rule applying 22-3414(3) to felony-murder cases)
State v. Houston, 289 Kan. 252 (2009) (standard for determining lesser-included instructions)
State v. Marsh, 278 Kan. 520 (2004) (third-party motive evidence must connect to the crime)
State v. Adams, 280 Kan. 494 (2005) (totality of facts in third-party evidence analysis)
State v. Bricker, 292 Kan. 239 (2011) (standard of review for evidentiary rulings; abuse of discretion)
State v. Skolaut, 286 Kan. 219 (2008) (evidentiary review principles)
State v. Gonzalez, 290 Kan. 747 (2010) (wide latitude in closing arguments yet must be supported by evidence)
State v. White, 284 Kan. 333 (2007) (prosecutorial closing arguments and plain error framework)
State v. McCaslin, 291 Kan. 697 (2011) (two-step prosecutorial misconduct analysis (out of wide latitude; plain error))
State v. Tosh, 278 Kan. 83 (2004) (plain error standard for prosecutorial misconduct)
State v. Calderon, 270 Kan. 241 (2000) (lesser-included offenses when evidence supports theory)