robbery
obberyr
bberyro
beryrob
eryrobb
ryrobbe
yrobber

The theory behind felony murder stems from the idea of proximate cause -- you toss a bowling ball which narrowly misses crippling your arch-enemy (assault) ; the ball bounces into the street causing a SUV to swerve onto the sidewalk clipping a bench which flies into a plate glass window which shatters sending shards flying into the eye of a depressed man who has just taken an overdose of pills and is about to drink finish a litre of whiskey - killing him instantly.

Because your bowling ball was the (alleged) trigger i.e the proximate cause for the sequence of events, and that trigger was a crime (assault with bowling ball) - you get charged with murder.

I've always found this to be tricky reasoning because proximate cause is fairly arbitrary -- what about the plate glass foreman which cut corners (embezzlement) and sold plain glass as shatter resistant glass? or The SUV whose driver was DUI? or the bench whose grounding bolts were stolen by hobos looking to sell scrap iron?

If I say to you that I was merely handing the bowling ball to my enemy and it slipped out of my hand, then suddenly its not me responsible for felony murder but one of the other people responsible as the proximate cause.

This brings me back to the taxi driver -- what happens if the guy approaching"with a gun" merely was exercising his constitutional right to bear arms and was coming towards the vehicle to pay the fare as promised? Would the driver of the vehicle then face charges? Its not often I tend liberal on law and order issues but the felony murder rule strikes me as ripe for abuse.

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

Police believe the two teenage girls allegedly conspired with the men in an attempted taxicab robbery and carjacking.  

Tough shit. Good call on the charge.