For a defendant to be convicted of felony murder, the prosecution must prove that he committed some predicate felony. I’ve seen some wild felony murder cases, but none as wild as People v. Barraza, 2026 WL 2934869 (Cal. App. 4th 2026). Specifically, in Barraza, the court was asked to answer “whether growing human hair, still attached to the victim’s body, constitutes ‘personal property’ for purposes of robbery.”

In Barraza,

In early 2022, Barraza and his friends turned against Nikko after concluding he had stolen from them. Barraza and John discussed cutting off Nikko’s hair to teach him a “lesson.” Knowing of Nikko’s intention to sell his hair, John referred to it as an “asset”—the “bank account” on top of his head. Another acquaintance similarly regarded Nikko’s hair as his “prized possession” recalling, “[h]e was always in his hair or always fixing his hair.” John went so far as to warn Nikko directly, “don’t be surprised if that—that hair gets cut off” “one of these days.”

On March 26, 2022, Nikko was spending time with two mutual friends of Barraza and John. Nikko was asleep in his friend’s car when they drove to Barraza’s apartment. The friends left Nikko sleeping in the car as they went inside to visit Barraza and the Ws. Upon learning that Nikko was outside in the car, Barraza went outside with a knife to confront him. Barraza opened the car door, grabbed Nikko’s hair, which was in a bun, and began cutting it off with the knife. He wanted to cut the entire bun off but Nikko woke up and fought back—kicking Barraza, flailing his arms and screaming for Barraza to stop, crying “ ‘Not my hair.’ ” Barraza responded by punching Nikko and then stabbed him in the leg with the knife. The knife penetrated approximately four inches into the back of Nikko’s leg, severing the popliteal artery and causing his death.

The State charged Barraza with both felony robbery and felony murder. In California, robbery is defined as “the felonious taking of personal property in the possession of another, from his person or immediate presence, and against his will, accomplished by means of force or fear.” A jury ultimately convicted Barraza guilty of felony murder, finding that he killed Nikko during a robbery.

On appeal, the court reversed the felony murder conviction. It concluded that

A person taking already cut hair by force commits a robbery because cut hair is a chattel. However, a person who forcibly cuts a person’s hair and takes it in one continuous act commits a battery because no “personal property” exists yet to be the subject of a taking.

Notably, in many jurisdictions, a crime such as felony battery cannot be the predicate felony for felony murder under what’s known as the “merger doctrine.”