State v. Boccadoro

• Decision Date: 04 February 1929
• Docket Number: No. 50.,50.
• Citation: 144 A. 612
• Parties: STATE v. BOCCADORO.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

144 A. 612

STATE

v. BOCCADORO.

No. 50.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

Feb. 4, 1929.

Error to Court of Oyer and Terminer, Essex County.

Anthony Boccadoro was convicted of murder, and he brings error. Affirmed.

J. Victor D'Aloia, of Newark, for plaintiff in error.

Joseph L. Smith, Prosecutor of the Pleas, and Simon L. Fisch, Assistant Prosecutor of the Pleas, both of Newark, for the State.

GUMMERE, C. J. Anthony Boccadoro, the defendant below, was convicted of murder in the first degree for the killing, on the 31st of January, 1928, of one Edward C. Thompson, in the town of Bloomfield, in the county of Essex, N. J. The jury recommended life imprisonment, and the sentence pronounced was in accordance with that recommendation. The present writ of error is sued out to test the validity of the conviction.

The first ground urged for reversal is that there was error in the refusal of the trial court to direct a verdict at the close of the case upon the ground that the evidence did not make out sufficient proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of the crime charged against him. The testimony on the part of the state in brief was as follows: Mr. Thompson, about 8 o'clock in the evening was in a room with his wife on the second floor of his home in Bloomfield. The first floor was dark, and there was little light on the second floor; a single lamp in the room where they were sitting being the only light in the house. Apparently he heard a noise on the first floor of the house, for he went downstairs into the kitchen, and almost immediately after arriving there, according to the testimony of some of the neighbors, there was a sound of scuffling in the room, and also what seemed like the muffled shot of a gun. This attracted the attention of some of those living close by, one or two of whom came out of their homes. Other neighbors were on the street near the Thompson house. There was evidence that immediately after this noise in the house a man, who was not identified by those who saw him, probably because it was after nightfall, was seen coming from the direction of the rear of the decedent's home and close to it, walking toward the garage. When he was seen he apparently had some light material over his body. Investigation showed that a lace curtain had been torn from the kitchen window, which was open, that was afterwards found near the garage, indicating that some person had come through the kitchen window, torn the curtain loose in doing so, and had afterwards thrown it away. About the same time this unidentified man was seen Mr. Thompson was observed on the front porch of his home. He managed to walk across to his next door neighbor's, and there fell on the porch. A hasty examination showed that he had been shot, and the police were immediately notified of the fact. He was promptly taken to a hospital, and died either on the way there or very shortly after his arrival. His death was the result of a bullet wound, the bullet going clear through his body and being found by a police officer, who had accompanied him to the hospital, while the attendants there were cutting away the decedent's clothing for the purpose of making an autopsy. The bullet was found between the body and the clothing of the decedent, and was taken charge of by the police.

There was evidence that about a month prior to this shooting the house of a Dr. Black, located in Glen Ridge, suburb of Newark, had been entered in a fashion similar to that adopted in entering Mr. Thompson's home; that this was done while Dr. Black and his family were away, and occurred early in the evening; that some jewelry had then been stolen, one piece of which was called a maple leaf pin, and also an old-fashioned five-chambered Smith & Wesson revolver, which the doctor had owned for over 20 years. The entry into the Black house occurred on the 2d of January, 1928, a little less than a month before the entry into the Thompson home. The defendant almost immediately after the Black robbery, say within a day or so, gave to Rose Tiffany, a woman with whom he was living, a maple leaf pin, which Dr. Black identified as the one which had been stolen from his home and which he had given to his wife some 20 years before.

After the murder of Mr. Thompson, the police called on Dr. Black, and learned in an interview with him that his revolver had been stolen from his home, and the character of the weapon. He also told them that some 2 or 3 years before this occurred he had fired a shot from the gun into the ground near the edge of his porch to celebrate New Year's, and had then taken out the empty cartridge, leaving one chamber of the gun empty. When called as a witness by the state, Dr. Black repeated these facts to the jury. The bullet which was fired into the ground was dug up by the police authorities, and a comparison between it and the bullet which killed Thompson indicated that they were both fired out of the same caliber gun. It also appeared that they were each of them from cartridges of the same make, many years old, and which were no longer being manufactured. Ballistic experts called by the state testified that, after a very careful examination of these two bullets, they were convinced that they had been fired from the same weapon.

There was also evidence of the defendant's mistress, Rose Tiffany, that shortly after the Black robbery the defendant was possessed of a gun, which she described, and which appeared by her description to at least resemble the Black gun; that she saw him take the cartridges out of it, clean the gun, and then put the cartridges, which were four in number, back into it. She further testified that on the night of the murder of Mr. Thompson the defendant left their home on Canal street, in Newark, and which was some miles from the decedent's residence, in Bloomfield, about 6:40 in the evening, having first placed the gun which she had previously described...