State Of N.J. v. Rosales

• Decision Date: 19 July 2010
• Citation: 202 N.J. 549,998 A.2d 459
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent,v.Graciano Martinez ROSALES, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

202 N.J. 549

998 A.2d 459

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent,v.Graciano Martinez ROSALES, Defendant-Appellant.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued Feb. 2, 2010.

Decided July 19, 2010.

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Michael B. Jones, Assistant Deputy Public Defender, argued the cause for appellant (Yvonne Smith Segars, Public Defender, attorney; William P. Welaj, Designated Counsel, on the letter brief).

Joie D. Piderit, Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for respondent (Bruce J. Kaplan, Middlesex County Prosecutor, attorney).

Johanna Barba Jones, Special Deputy Attorney General, argued the cause for amicus curiae Attorney General of New Jersey (Paula T. Dow, Attorney General, attorney).

Justice WALLACE, JR., delivered the opinion of the Court.

The issue before us is whether it was error to deny defendant Graciano Martinez Rosales' request to call a psychiatrist as an expert witness to testify that defendant's confession was not voluntary. Defendant was indicted for the death of the victim, based, in part, on his confession. Defendant's motion to suppress his statement was denied. Prior to trial, defendant moved to present expert psychiatric testimony that, based on defendant's background and the circumstances surrounding the interrogation, he confessed to a crime he did not commit. The trial court denied the motion. A jury subsequently found defendant guilty. On appeal, defendant challenged the failure to permit his expert to testify that his statement was not voluntary. The Appellate Division affirmed. We granted defendant's petition for certification State v. Rosales, 200 N.J. 475, 983 A.2d 201 (2009), and now affirm. We conclude that, on the record before the court, it was not an abuse of discretion to reject the expert's proposed testimony that defendant confessed to a crime he did not commit.

I.

We summarize the pertinent facts necessary to decide this appeal. The indictment arose out of the stabbing death of Carolyn Arrington in July 2004. On August 5, 2004, the owner of an apartment building, located in Perth Amboy, discovered the dead body of Arrington in the basement and called the police. Lieutenant Phillip Terranova and other officers arrived to find the decomposing body of the victim. There was blood spatter throughout the basement.

Detective Steven Killane was assigned to lead the investigation. On August 7, 2004, Detective Killane returned to the building where the incident occurred and came upon Pedro Ventura. Ventura invited Detective Killane into his apartment. Once inside, the police observed a marijuana pipe in plain view and arrested Ventura. When questioned about the slain woman, Ventura admitted that several days earlier, he and defendant entered the basement to have sex with the victim. He stated that defendant argued with the victim, stabbed her, and placed the bloody knife in the garbage outside the building.

The next day, Detective Killane and three other officers visited defendant at his apartment on State Street in Perth Amboy. Defendant agreed to talk to the police and accompanied the officers to the police station. After the police read defendant his Miranda¹ rights, he signed a card acknowledging his waiver of those rights.² During an approximately thirty-minute interview, defendant denied involvement in the murder.

The police then asked defendant if he would agree to submit to a polygraph examination, and defendant said he would. Because the examiner was not available until the afternoon, defendant was given the option of going home or remaining at headquarters. Defendant chose to remain at headquarters.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., the police transported defendant to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, where the examination would take place. Prior to the polygraph examination, Sergeant Irma Alvarez issued defendant a second set of Miranda warnings. Defendant waived his rights and signed the Miranda card. Alvarez administered the polygraph examination from 5:11 p.m. to 5:43 p.m. Following the examination, Alvarez informed the officers that the test revealed that defendant had not been truthful.

Several hours later, near 9:00 p.m., the police reissued Miranda warnings to defendant, and he again waived his rights. In a recorded statement, defendant admitted he had sexual relations with Arrington on multiple occasions, including the night of the incident. However, defendant stated that when he left the basement Arrington was fine. Further, defendant explained that, as he was leaving, he saw a young man walking down the basement steps towards Arrington. He ignored the young man and went to visit Ventura in his apartment. After leaving Ventura's residence, defendant claimed he heard a woman scream and he ran home.

The police moved defendant to the Perth Amboy Police Department to view a photo array of potential suspects in an attempt to identify the man defendant described as having entered the basement when he was leaving. That proved unsuccessful.

The police continued to question defendant after he was again informed of his Miranda rights and again defendant agreed to speak to the police. Beginning at 12:18 a.m., defendant provided a second tape-recorded statement. On this occasion, defendant added that he had argued with Arrington over the amount of money he had to pay for sex, and as a result of that argument, Arrington slapped him. Defendant explained that he lost control and stabbed her with a blade. He subsequently dropped the knife in a trash bag outside the building. Defendant claimed that he did not intend to kill Arrington and that her death was an accident. The police placed defendant under arrest.

A Middlesex County grand jury indicted defendant for first-degree murder N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3(a)(1) and (2), fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5(d), third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4(d) and third-degree hindering apprehension or prosecution N.J.S.A. 2C:29-3(b)(4).

In January 2006, defendant was in jail when he allegedly told fellow inmate, Bernard Dickens, that he had “poked” the victim. Dickens claimed that defendant believed the police did not possess much evidence against him, and that he would claim insanity as a defense. Following that conversation, Dickens contacted the Prosecutor's Office and reported defendant's comments.

Defendant filed a motion to suppress his statements. He retained psychiatrist Dr. Robert Latimer, who met with defendant on three occasions at the prison. Dr. Latimer also reviewed most of the discovery materials generated from the investigation. In his September 22, 2005 letter-report, Dr. Latimer opined that defendant “ha[d] been vulnerable to severe anxiety and panic due to the power of the interrogation setting.” He concluded that defendant's “will was overcome to the point where he confessed to a crime he did not commit.”

At the hearing on the motion to suppress defendant's statements, the State called Investigator Ricardo, who outlined the timing and details of the circumstances surrounding defendant's several statements. Next, the court heard testimony from Dr. Latimer. Limited only to the suppression hearing, the State did not object to Dr. Latimer's testimony as an expert in psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Latimer described his three, one-hour interviews with defendant, which he acknowledged did not include any psychological testing. He related defendant's various statements concerning what occurred during the interrogation by the police. Dr. Latimer testified that defendant said the police had told him that he had five minutes to live, that an electric chair was coming, and that at one point an investigator picked up the phone, dialed someone, and appeared to make arrangements to have defendant picked up to be transported to the electric chair.

Dr. Latimer opined that if such conduct occurred, defendant would have been demoralized and his will would have been overcome. He found that defendant was suffering from anxiety and depression as a result of the ordeal, but that defendant did not suffer from a personality disorder. Dr. Latimer opined that

[defendant's] situation during what seems to me, as a lay person, as a custodial situation in which he was held, interrogated, frightened and threatened with immediate death or death at a later time, was of such a nature as to impart in him a substantial fear that he was in danger and that he had to somehow get out of that situation. And this anxiety was sufficient for him to overcome his fear of making an admission. So the anxiety of being under threat of death caused him to lose his will and he was overcome by this and issued a false confession. That's my clinical impression.

The State called Dr. Guillermo Parra, a forensic psychologist, to rebut the testimony of Dr. Latimer. Dr. Parra evaluated defendant and administered a battery of tests. He said that defendant had no history of any medical, psychological, or a psychiatric disorder. Dr. Parra recalled that defendant said he felt threatened and scared when the police came to his house and handcuffed him. After assessing defendant's performance on nine tests from the Woodcock Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery, Dr. Parra opined that defendant was not a person “with limited intellectual abilities,” had the “reasoning ability” of a young adult, and the ability to read and understand written material equivalent to that of a first-year college student.

Dr. Parra agreed with Dr. Latimer that defendant was suffering from an adjustment disorder. He described this disorder as the “common cold” of psychology that comes and goes throughout life as people cope with difficult situations, such as adjusting to prison life. However, Dr. Parra disagreed with Dr. Latimer's opinion that defendant's will was overborne during the time he confessed.

Defendant testified on his own behalf. He denied that the police read him his rights or that he signed a Miranda waiver fo...