I have, or HAD a 73 year old Uncle. He was in his usual state of health when he and my aunt were robbed. He was dragged out of his car and roughed up by a 35 year old acqaintance (who had to have know of his frail health and at least some of his medical conditions). After dumping my uncle at the bank, the thief took off in their car with my aunt inside, who proceded to beat the crap out of him. Long story short, they both made it home, he complained of pain, he went to bed that night and died in his sleep. The autopsy showed no actual assault caused his death. He had heart disease, and the stress of the event prob caused a heart attack… so , question is, can this person be charged w/ involuntary manslaughter, since his actions resulted in my uncle’s death (I am sure any doctor will testify that this was the precipitating factor.) He did threaten that he had a gun.
Your story is incoherent.
I suspect it’s incoherent because you’re upset.
Given that your story lacks clarity, no one can advise you.
In any case, if you believe your family member has been murdered, contact the proper authorities ASAP.
Your local law enforcement is the only group that can actually answer your question.
No one on this message board knows the particulars of your jurisdiction.
On edit:
As an example of how this tale is incoherent, the way I’m reading it, your aunt beat the crap out of the subject, which beating caused your uncle to expire.
Seems pretty clear to me. Uncle was roughed up by thief (the beating that later precipitated Uncle’s heart attach). Thief dumped Uncle out of the car. Thief took off with Aunt. Aunt beat up Thief, and went home with Uncle. I’m not sure how else you could read it – in your example, Uncle wasn’t in the car at the time.
Anyway, I can’t answer the OP except to repeat Mr. Slant’s comment: Go see the police right now.
[QUOTE=Mr. Slant]
Your story is incoherent.
I just re read my story. I think it is pretty clear except the part where I failed to mention that the police do know the whole story but have only charged him with robbery. I was only curious if anyone *knew enough about the law * to say whether or not the chain of events would fall under the category of involuntary manslaughter, ie, the thief only meant to rob my uncle, but his actions led to his death. I don’t need someone to tell me to call the police.
I am not being overly emotional, it is a legit question. But if that’s how you wanna be then, NEVERMIND! 
I was able to follow the story. I don’t know the answer to your question, but the circumstances seem clear to me. I’m also sorry for your loss.
[QUOTE=Nevermind]
). After dumping my uncle at the bank, *the thief * took off in their car *with my aunt inside, who * proceded to beat the crap out of him.QUOTE]
Sounds clear to me, just as an example
Thanks
What an awful story - do I understand correctly that the thief was an acquaintance of your uncle? How very sad, I’m sorry for your loss.
Please contact the police as soon as possible, I agree with others that we are not in a position to state whether it could or couldn’t be classed as manslaughter but I hope you are able to get a better answer from the police.
[QUOTE=Nevermind]
I never accused you of asking an illegitimate question due to your emotional state.
Rather, I suggested that your account of things was disorganized and perhaps less clear than a written account should be for someone to consider your hypothetical.
I try very hard to avoid engaging in personalities on this message board. I can assure you that I’ve never intended to insult or upset you.
IANAL, however I have heard very similar narratives in which the bad dude was charged with manslaughter. I would also suggest speaking to someone, but I wonder if the DA is the person you want to approach.
I also share your loss - all the best, for what it’s worth.
If the police have already taken witness statements and so on and he’s already been charged, then you need to speak to the District Attorney, not the police. The DA can certainly charge him with manslaughter; he may not be convicted. You may be “sure” that a doctor would testify that the robbery resulted in the heart attack, but the sequence of events you’ve described (the delay between the actual incident and his death) makes that less likely than you might think.
IANAL, etc.
IANAL, but I read some years back that if a death occurs within one (two?) years of your doing something that caused it, it would meet the requirements for a felony wrongful death. The police may be holding off so that they can have a robbery charge under their belt in order to charge the thief with a felony-murder.
maybe.
Wrongful death is a civil tort and can’t ever be a felony. I think you may be confusing it with the felony murder doctrine, which in some jurisdictions automatically “upgrades” what might otherwise be considered manslaughter to a murder charge if the death was caused during or by the commission of another felony.
When I was clerking in DC, a victim’s family came forth after the victim was discharged from the hospital and asked the police to arrest the perpetrator for murder. Ultimately, the perpetrator was charged with felony murder.
While IAAL, I do not practice criminal law, and I’m not in any way giving you any legal advice. As a lay person, and from what I can parse out here, I suggest you at least speak to the police. They (or the DA) will make the determination (or at least follow up with the Medical Examiner) if they need to bring up further charges.
How could they charge him with murder if the victim wasn’t dead?
Presumably the charge was attempted felony murder.
The rules as to what constitutes a felony murder vary to an insanely wide degree state by state. On one side of the spectrum, a few states don’t recognize the charge at all, on the other side, the connection to the actual crime charged can be fairly tenuous (such as in Illinois, where an unarmed robber was pursued by police during which time there was a friendly fire incident where a police officer killed another officer – the unarmed robber was charged and convicted on felony murder theory although objectively he had no hand in the death whatsoever, except insofar as his crime caused the police to pursue him).
There’s no such thing as attempted felony murder. The felony murder rule only applies if somebody dies.
It does appear that Robbery (3-402) and Armed Robbery (3-403) are both qualifying charged for felony murder in Maryland.
That said, there may be some other reason that it is not being charged. Basically, the DA may feel that they cannot prove the robbery was the proximate cause of the death.
Derrrr, you’re right.