Ideas in Progress

I am going to experiment with having a poll as a blog post.
Please read the scenario then scroll down and select one answer below.

If you are beaming Ensign Jones off of an alien planet and, in the brief time between when the ensign is de-materialized on the planet but before he has been re-materialized in the transporter room, someone sabotages the transporter equipment so the energy and information in the transporter beam that are needed to re-materialize Ensign Jones are lost forever…

has that saboteur murdered Ensign Jones?
	No. The saboteur merely destroyed information that did not have a functioning brain or thoughts or even consciousness so it can’t have been murder.
	Yes. Without the sabotage, Ensign Jones would be alive and well in the transporter room right now, so the crime is murder.
	This makes no sense, it’s just a show.
	I would have said “Yes” or “No”, but I disagree with the explanation afterwards in those choices. Please explain in the comments.
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