State v. Baldwin

• Decision Date: 15 January 1997
• Citation: 296 N.J.Super. 391,686 A.2d 1260
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Michael BALDWIN, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division

Page 391

296 N.J.Super. 391

686 A.2d 1260

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Michael BALDWIN, Defendant-Appellant.

Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division.

Submitted Nov. 27, 1996.

Decided Jan. 15, 1997.

Susan L. Reisner, Public Defender, for appellant (Lon Taylor, Assistant Deputy Public Defender, of counsel and on the brief). Peter Verniero, Attorney General, for respondent (Teresa A. Blair, Deputy Attorney General, of counsel and on the brief).

Before Judges LONG, SKILLMAN and A.A. RODRIGUEZ.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

SKILLMAN, J.A.D.

Tried before a jury, defendant was found guilty of purposeful or knowing murder, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3a(1),(2), possession of a handgun without a permit, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5b, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4a. The court sentenced defendant to life imprisonment, with a thirty-year period of parole ineligibility, for murder, and a concurrent five year term of imprisonment for possession of a handgun without a permit. The court merged defendant's conviction for possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose into his conviction for murder. The court also imposed a total VCCB assessment of $100 and a total SNSF assessment of $150.

On appeal, defendant makes the following arguments:

I. THE TRIAL COURT'S TOTAL OMISSION OF ANY INSTRUCTION REGARDING THE JURY'S OBLIGATION TO ASSESS THE CREDIBILITY OF THREE INCRIMINATORY OUT-OF-COURT STATEMENTS ALLEGEDLY MADE BY DEFENDANT TO TWO DIFFERENT PERSONS DEPRIVED DEFENDANT DUE PROCESS OF LAW AND A FAIR TRIAL. (Not Raised Below)

II. THE TRIAL COURT'S FAILURE TO CAUTION THE JURY REGARDING THE RELIABILITY OF DEFENDANT'S THREE INCRIMINATORY OUT-OF-COURT ORAL STATEMENTS DEPRIVED DEFENDANT DUE PROCESS OF LAW AND A FAIR TRIAL. (Not Raised Below).

III. WRIGHT'S TESTIMONY THAT HE OVERHEARD DEFENDANT SAY TO SOME UNKNOWN PERSON "GIVE ME YOUR MONEY, OR YOU WILL BE NEXT," IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE SHOOTING, CONSTITUTED EXTREMELY PREJUDICIAL OTHER-CRIMES EVIDENCE DEPRIVING DEFENDANT OF DUE PROCESS OF LAW AND A FAIR TRIAL. (Not Raised Below)

IV. THE TRIAL COURT'S TOTAL OMISSION OF A JURY CHARGE ON "MERE PRESENCE" DEPRIVED DEFENDANT DUE PROCESS OF LAW AND A FAIR TRIAL. (Not Raised Below)

V. THE ACCUMULATION OF ERRORS DENIED DEFENDANT DUE PROCESS OF LAW AND A FAIR TRIAL.

VI. THE IMPOSITION OF A MAXIMUM LIFE SENTENCE FOR MURDER WAS NOT SUPPORTED BY A PROPER ANALYSIS OF AGGRAVATING AND MITIGATING FACTORS.

Except for defendant's first two arguments relating to the trial court's failure to give the jury special cautionary instructions regarding its consideration of his alleged inculpatory out-of-court statements, defendant's arguments are clearly without merit and do not require discussion. R. 2:11-3(e)(2).

Defendant and the victim were competitors in the sale of drugs in the same area of Newark. At about 8:30 p.m. on November 11, 1993, an assailant shot the victim from close range on a street in the neighborhood where he sold drugs. The only issue at trial was the identification of defendant as the assailant.

The State's evidence against defendant consisted of not only the testimony of three eyewitnesses to the crime but also three inculpatory out-of-court statements allegedly made by defendant. Rashid Dorsey testified that a week before the murder defendant offered him $1,000 to shoot the victim. Fuguan Wright testified that defendant told him before the murder that the victim had been threatening him but that "he can always get a gun and do what he wants to do with [the victim.]" Wright also testified that defendant accosted a person called "Treat" immediately after shooting the victim, and said, "give me your money or you will be next."

Defendant argues that because the State presented evidence of these alleged inculpatory out-of-court statements, the trial court was obligated to instruct the jury in accordance with the principles set forth in State v. Hampton, 61 N.J. 250, 294 A.2d 23 (1972) and State v. Kociolek, 23 N.J. 400, 129 A.2d 417 (1957). Since defendant did not request or object to the court's failure to give such instructions, their omission would be grounds for reversal only if "clearly capable of producing an unjust result." R. 2:10-2; State v. Jordan, 285 N.J.Super. 589, 594, 667 A.2d 1094 (App.Div.1995) petition for certif. denied, 143 N.J. 518, 673 A.2d 276 (1996), and cross-petition for certif. granted, 146 N.J. 498, 683 A.2d 201 (1996).

A trial court has an "absolute duty" to properly instruct the jury regarding its fact-finding responsibilities, State v. Concepcion, 111 N.J. 373, 379, 545 A.2d 119 (1988), which may include special cautionary instructions relating to the jury's consideration of particular kinds of evidence. See, e.g., State v. Fertig, 143 N.J. 115, 127, 668 A.2d 1076 (1996) (hypnotically refreshed testimony); State v. Gross, 121 N.J. 1, 16-17, 577 A.2d 806 (1990) (prior inconsistent statements); State v. Green, 86 N.J. 281, 291-94, 430 A.2d 914 (1981) (identifications); State v. Sinclair, supra, 57 N.J. at 63, 269 A.2d 161 (prior conviction of a defendant or other witness); State v. Hampton, supra (confessions); State v. Begyn, 34 N.J. 35, 54, 167 A.2d 161 (1961) (accomplice testimony); State v. Kociolek, supra (oral statements). However, the need for such special cautionary instructions depends on the nature of the evidence presented at the trial. Consequently, we conclude that a trial court is not automatically required to give the forms of instructions mandated by Hampton and Kociolek whenever any kind of an alleged inculpatory statement of a defendant is admitted into evidence. Rather, the need for these instructions depends upon the circumstances under which the statement was allegedly made and the issues which the jury must consider in evaluating its evidential significance.

In Hampton the Court held that where an issue is raised as to the admissibility of a confession on the grounds that the State violated the defendant's rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed.2d 694 (1966) or that defendant's confession was given involuntarily, and the court rules that the confession is admissible, the court should not advise the jury of this ruling but should instruct it to "decide whether in view of all the same circumstances the defendant's confession is true." 61 N.J. at 272, 294 A.2d 23. The Court held that the jury should be further instructed that "[i]f they find that [the confession] is not true, then they must treat it as inadmissible and disregard it for purposes of discharging their function as fact finders on the ultimate issue of guilt or innocence." Ibid.

The Court's holding in Hampton is now codified in N.J.R.E. 104(c), which provides in pertinent part:

Where by virtue of any rule of law a judge is required in a criminal action to make a preliminary determination as to the admissibility of a statement by the defendant, the judge shall hear and determine the question of its admissibility out of the presence of the jury.... If the judge admits the statement the jury shall not be informed of the finding that the statement is admissible but shall be instructed to disregard the statement if it finds that it is not credible.

[Emphasis added.]

Thus, the Court in Hampton required the trial court to instruct the jury to decide whether a defendant's out-of-court statement is credible only in a case where there has been a pretrial hearing involving the admissibility of the statement on the grounds of an alleged violation of the defendant's Miranda rights or involuntariness. Similarly, N.J.R.E. 104(c) requires the trial court to instruct the jury to make a determination as to whether a defendant's out-of-court statement is credible only "[w]here by virtue of any rule of law a judge is required in a criminal action to make a preliminary determination as to the admissibility of a statement by the defendant." Obviously, the "rule[s] of law" which require a preliminary determination by the court as to the admissibility of a defendant's statement include Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L. Ed.2d 908 (1964), which requires the trial court to rule on the voluntariness of a confession, and Miranda, which requires the court to determine whether defendant was advised of his rights to remain silent and to counsel prior to any custodial interrogation resulting in the statement.

The need for a special cautionary instruction to the jury to consider the credibility of a defendant's out-of-court statement elicited through police interrogation arises from some of the same concerns which require a pretrial hearing as to such a statement's admissibility. Although a defendant's statement may have been preceded by appropriate Miranda warnings and may have been elicited by techniques of police interrogation which did not involve sufficient coerciveness for the trial court to conclude that the statement was involuntary, the interrogation process may nevertheless raise serious questions regarding the statement's reliability. As the Court pointed out in Crane v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 683, 688-89, 106 S.Ct. 2142, 2145-46, 90 L. Ed.2d 636, 644 (1986):

[T]he circumstances surrounding the taking of a confession can be highly relevant to two separate inquiries, one legal and one factual. The manner in which a statement was extracted is, of course, relevant to the purely legal question of its voluntariness, a question most, but not all, States assign to the trial judge alone to resolve. See Jackson v. Denno, supra, at 378, 84 S.Ct. at 1781. But the physical and psychological environment that yielded the confession can also be of substantial relevance to the ultimate factual issue of the defendant's guilt or innocence.

See also State v. Smith, 32 N.J. 501, 558, 161 A.2d 520 (1960), (concurring opinion) ("An involuntary confession may not be used, among other reasons, because...