State v. Chambers
| Decision Date | 10 January 2023 |
| Docket Number | A-2551-19 |
| Parties | STATE OF NEW JERSEY, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. ALRASHIM N. CHAMBERS, a/k/a ALRASHIM CHAMBER, AL-RASHIM CHAMBERS, and ALRASHIM CHAMBERS, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division |
This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the internet this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.
Submitted December 14, 2022
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division Essex County, Indictment No. 17-08-2309.
Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney for appellant (Christopher W. Hsieh, Designated Counsel, on the brief).
Theodore N. Stephens, II, Acting Essex County Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Matthew E. Hanley, Special Deputy Attorney General/Acting Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief).
Before Judges Mayer and Enright.
Defendant Alrashim Chambers appeals from his 2019 convictions and aggregate fifty-year prison sentence. We affirm.
We glean the following facts from a pretrial motion hearing and the jury trial. Following a May 27, 2017 street fight in Newark, Rajaee Montgomery was shot and killed; Raven Pugh, Montgomery's friend, also was shot during the incident but survived. Defendant was convicted of the shootings and related weapons offenses.
The shootings occurred days after a dispute arose over a used car registered in Montgomery's name but purchased by a person named Balon Edwards. Edwards asked Montgomery to register the car after she was unable to do so and he agreed. Subsequently, Montgomery received notice a parking ticket was issued on Edwards's car and he asked her to pay it. Edwards never paid the ticket.
Montgomery was advised by the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) his license would be suspended if the ticket remained unpaid. Accordingly, two days before the shootings, he and his live-in boyfriend, Jeffrey Hall,[1] arranged to meet a tow truck driver at Edwards's home to tow away and "junk" the car. The driver paid Montgomery approximately $200 for the car and towed it away after Montgomery and Hall removed the license plates. The men returned the plates to the MVC and used the proceeds to pay Edwards's parking ticket.
On the evening of May 27, Hall received a phone call from Shante Chambers, Edwards's cousin and a relative of Hall's uncle. Edwards was with Shante[2] and testified Shante's voice was loud and agitated during the call. Shante's friend, Jamillah Allen, and defendant were with Shante, too, and heard Hall and Shante scream at each other. Montgomery's voice also was heard on the call with the "same energy" as Hall's voice. According to defendant, the conversation concerned money Shante owed Montgomery and when defendant joined the conversation to mollify the participants, Hall "was disrespectful" toward him so he "shout[ed] disrespect back at him."
When the call ended, Montgomery and Hall took separate vehicles to Fairmount Avenue in Newark, to continue their discussion with Shante. Hall drove with his sisters, Pugh, Montgomery's son and another child; Montgomery rode with his sister and picked up a friend, Michael Garner, on the way to Fairmount Avenue.
When the two cars arrived on Fairmount Avenue, Shante was standing in the street, asking for Montgomery. As Montgomery and Hall exited their vehicles and walked directly toward her, Shante confronted Montgomery with a knife and began thrusting it at him.[3] Montgomery and Hall yelled at Shante to put the knife down. They also tried to knock it out of her hand. Edwards, defendant, and Shante's friend, Allen, witnessed the fight, and Allen pulled defendant aside to show him she had a gun in her purse.
Less than a minute after the fight started, defendant walked slowly into the street. Shante separated from Hall and Montgomery to drop her knife on the sidewalk where Edwards stood before returning to the street, and Edwards retrieved a nearby baseball bat to smash the rear window of Hall's car. Within moments of Edwards grabbing her bat, defendant spotted Garner walking toward him. Defendant testified that once he saw a gun in Garner's hand, he thought he "was in trouble" so he retrieved the gun from Allen's purse.[4]
According to defendant, Garner tried to hand his gun to Montgomery, but dropped it. Defendant fired a shot "at the gun" on the ground, purportedly in self-defense. He later testified that while everyone else in the area ran, Montgomery bent down to retrieve the gun. Defendant fired another shot at the gun, believing that if Montgomery "g[o]t the gun in his hand, then [defendant] was dead, basically. "Defendant testified he thought he struck Montgomery with the second shot because Montgomery stopped reaching for the gun and grabbed his back instead.
Defendant admitted Montgomery fled the scene and defendant chased him. Further, defendant testified he fired additional shots into the crowd "just to keep the crowd going in that direction" and "to assure [his] safety." Defendant was captured on surveillance video, walking slowly back down the sidewalk and tucking a gun into his pants pocket after firing his last shot. Seconds later, he left the area in a car driven by another individual.
Pugh also testified at trial. She stated she went with Hall and Montgomery to Fairmount Avenue believing the men would "have a discussion about [Edwards's] car" and "there might be an argument." Additionally, she stated the people who accompanied Montgomery and Hall to the scene did not bring any weapons. Pugh also testified she saw Shante confront Montgomery and Hall and "just swing[] the knife at" Montgomery before dropping it on the sidewalk. Further, Pugh saw defendant silently standing in the street "with his hand in his pocket" "[l]ike he was up to something" before he pulled a gun out of his pocket and "cock[ed] it back." Once Pugh saw the gun, she turned around to run back to Hall's car because she "had to get to . . . where the kids was at." While running, she heard a gunshot. Pugh returned to Hall's car, "put the kids down on the floor and . . . [her]self over them" before realizing she sustained a flesh wound to her arm.
Montgomery died from his gunshot wound shortly after he was taken to a local hospital. Hours after the incident, the Newark Police Department conducted separate photo arrays with Garner, Hall, and Pugh. Each identified defendant as the shooter.
Following his arrest in June 2017, defendant was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3(a)(1)(2) (count one); second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon without a permit, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5(b) (count two); second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4(a) (count three); and fourth-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b)(3) (count four). Allen was named as a codefendant and charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon without a permit. Shante also was named as a co-defendant and indicted on charges of second-degree aggravated assault, N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b)(2); fourthdegree unlawful possession of a knife, under circumstances not manifestly appropriate for lawful use, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5(d); and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4(d).
Prior to trial, defendant moved for a Wade[5] hearing, arguing the photo array conducted with Garner was "impermissibly suggestive" and Garner's out-of-court identification, along with "any subsequent identifications" of defendant as the shooter, should be suppressed. After hearing argument, the judge rendered an oral decision, denying the motion.
In a conforming written opinion issued the same day, the judge found defendant failed to meet "the threshold showing required by Henderson[6] that would entitle [him] to a Wade hearing to explore the propriety of the identification." The judge determined the contested photo array was conducted by "a double-blind administrator from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office" after Garner described the suspect's gender, approximate height and weight, and what the suspect was wearing. Additionally, the judge found Garner told detectives he "had a clear view of the shooter's face with no item obstructing his view, that the shooter's dreads were in a ponytail behind his head, and . . . he saw the shooter clearly in broad daylight."
Further, the judge concluded for Garner's photo array, "the individuals in the filler photos . . . [were] considerably similar in appearance to [d]efendant" and the detective administering the photo array provided proper instructions. The judge added,
The judge also found "the State made substantial efforts to limit the likelihood of misidentification by constructing a photo array" consisting of men who matched the description of the suspect and who "resemble[d] the suspect in significant features." Noting defendant did not contend "the presence of any other system variables" and his "initial claim of suggestiveness [was] baseless," the judge concluded "the exploration of estimator variables at a hearing [was] not required."[7]
Defendant's jury trial commenced in May 2019 and concluded the following month. At trial, Garner, Hall, and Pugh identified defendant as the person who shot and killed Montgomery; Hall also testified he knew defendant for the "majority of [his] life." Additionally, Pugh identified defendant as the person who shot her.
Eric Manns, a detective with the Newark Police...
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