SLAYING

when Marlow and his girlfriend came home.

Dean drove away in a Nissan Maxima with some stolen items, leaving Flint behind. Marlow then jumped into his SUV and followed Dean in a highspeed chase, ending up on southbound Interstate 95, near Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, prosecutors said. Marlow continued the chase after a 911 operator repeatedly told him to stop.

Flint ran from Marlow’s place and jumped over a fence separating the West Palm Beach apartment complex from the highway. Dean abruptly pulled over to the side of the highway to pick up Flint. Then Marlow, trailing Dean, noticed Flint.

Marlow testified he thought Flint was holding a gun, ducked below the wheel and kept driving. He said he briefly stopped, looked in his rear view mirror and didn’t see anything, then headed back to his apartment.

But Marlow had run over and killed Flint, 23. Dean was charged; Marlow wasn’t.

Dean was prosecuted under Florida’s felony murder rule.

This means a murder charge may be filed against a defendant committing a felony if a person dies during the crime — even if the accused didn’t actually cause the death.

In 2008, Dean was found guilty of second-degree felony murder and sentenced to life. But the Fourth District Court of Appeal ordered a new trial, after finding that the jury did not get the correct instruction on a related burglary charge that resulted in a 15-year sentence.

During the 2014 retrial, Dean’s attorney accused Marlow of intentionally plowing into Flint, making him the only person responsible for the man’s death.

The defense also insisted there was a lack of evidence to prove Dean had committed a burglary.

But after less than an hour of deliberations, the six-member jury convicted Dean of both second-degree felony murder and burglary.

In Dean’s appeal, his lawyers from the public defender’s office argued that the jury should have been given the option of considering the lesser charge of manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.