State v. Chew
| Decision Date | 26 June 1997 |
| Citation | 695 A.2d 1301,150 N.J. 30 |
| Parties | STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. John CHEW, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Matthew Astore, Deputy Public Defender II, and Jacqueline E. Turner, Assistant Deputy Public Defender, for defendant-appellant (Susan L. Reisner, Public Defender, attorney).
Bennett A. Barlyn, Deputy Attorney General, for plaintiff-respondent (Peter Verniero, Attorney General, attorney).
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
O'HERN, J.
This is a capital murder case. A jury has found defendant John Chew guilty of murdering his former companion in order to obtain insurance proceeds on her life. Major issues raised in his appeal are: (1) whether the statutory aggravating factor, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3 c(4)(d), which makes death-eligible a "murder as consideration for the receipt, or in expectation of the receipt of anything of pecuniary value," only covers contract killings and not killings to obtain insurance proceeds; (2) whether statements taken by police after defendant had asked for an attorney were admitted in violation of his constitutional rights; and (3) whether defendant was denied his fair-trial right to have the jury consider the non-capital verdict of murder as an accomplice. In addition, defendant asserts that various other trial errors require reversal of his conviction.
We find (1) that N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3 c(4)(d) does cover a killing to obtain insurance proceeds; (2) that after defendant had invoked his right to remain silent and to have the assistance of counsel, he voluntarily initiated further conversation with police and waived the protections of the Fifth Amendment and the state privilege against self-incrimination; and (3) that the court correctly charged the jury that in order to convict defendant of capital murder it must unanimously agree that defendant alone had committed the murder by his own conduct. No other trial errors taint the verdict, and we affirm the conviction of capital murder and the
sentence of death. We will conduct proportionality review of defendant's sentence in later proceedings.
At approximately 9:00 a.m. on January 13, 1993, police found the body of Theresa Bowman in the driver's seat of a Corvette parked in the rear of the parking lot of the Woodbridge Hilton. Ms. Bowman had been dead approximately ten hours. Her throat had been slashed. Found with the body was a piece of paper with a Newark beeper number and the name "Joe Martin" written on it.
The Corvette was registered to John Chew of Mystic Isle. The police contacted Chew and set up an appointment to meet at Chew's residence that afternoon. Prior to meeting with Chew, the police interviewed Alejandro Mecalco, a chef at the Woodbridge Hilton. Mecalco stated that he had seen a man "grabbing" a woman in the car. He described the man as having "a round face, dark eyes, full beard, mustache, and fine hair, well combed." A police sketch depicted this man as similar in appearance to Kenny Rogers, a contemporary recording artist. A police officer who had patrolled the Woodbridge Hilton parking lot that night stated that he saw two persons in the car, one of whom had blond hair.
When police arrived at Chew's residence at 4:10 p.m. on January 13, Chew appeared "unkempt." Chew did not have a beard and did not match the description provided by Mecalco. He was in pain and exhibited a wobbly gait. Chew told the police that he had back and foot injuries resulting from a recent fall while working as a roofer. During this meeting, the police obtained Chew's first statement. The setting was non-custodial and informal. Chew spoke with the police for approximately fifteen minutes. Chew said that he had last seen Ms. Bowman on the evening of January 12, 1993, when she left for a Woodbridge restaurant to pick up her paycheck to cover an overdrawn check that she had used to buy pain medication for Chew.
According to this first statement, both Ms. Bowman and defendant drove to the home of Chew's sister, Crystal Charette, and Theresa subsequently drove off alone in defendant's Corvette. John had loaned his second car to Crystal. Chew claimed that after Theresa left, he remained at Crystal's home with Crystal and her roommate, Helen Borden, for an hour-and-a-half before both women drove him home.
After the police left, Chew drove to Crystal's home to speak with Crystal and Helen. Chew told them that he was about to be blamed for something that he did not do. He said that a drug deal had turned bad and that he needed an alibi. He asked them to tell the police that they had visited him on the evening of January 12 and had remained at his home the entire evening. They agreed.
Shortly after midnight on January 14, 1993, Woodbridge Detective Geoffrey Kerwin, the lead investigator in the Bowman murder, interviewed Crystal and Helen at Crystal's home. At that meeting, Crystal and Helen corroborated Chew's first statement. In the early afternoon of January 14, Detective Kerwin again visited Chew to request an interview and to obtain consent to take blood samples and to search Chew's home and car. Although not in custody, Chew signed a waiver of rights prior to the interview. In a brief taped statement, Chew repeated the story he had told the police on January 13, and provided information about his relationship with Ms. Bowman. The two had met in January 1988, when Theresa was twenty-three or twenty-four, and Chew was about twelve years older. Chew then was working as a roofer installing shingling. By 1989, they were living together. At the time of the murder, the couple lived in Mystic Island.
Upon completion of the search, the investigators traveled with defendant to Crystal's home and obtained formal, taped statements from Crystal and Helen. The taped statements exculpated Chew.
On January 15, 1993, the police received a number of calls suggesting a motive for the murder of Theresa Bowman: Chew
was the beneficiary of a $250,000 insurance policy on Ms. Bowman's life. The first call was from the life insurance salesman who had sold a joint policy to John and Theresa in 1991.
On New Year's Eve, 1992, thirteen days before the murder, Chew stopped at the agent's home and stated that he wanted to pay December's premium in cash because his check had bounced and he did not want the policy to lapse. After calling his office and suggesting other payment options, the agent finally accepted a money order. No customer had ever before come directly to the agent's home with cash.
George Tilton, a former employee of Chew, reported that in 1991 Chew had offered him $10,000 to kill Ms. Bowman. Tilton told the police that Chew wanted the victim dead to collect the insurance proceeds. Tilton testified that Chew proposed the conspiracy repeatedly between June and November 1991.
The third caller was Chew's son, Robert Chew, who phoned the police from the Ocean County Jail, where he was serving a sentence for a number of crimes. Robert Chew claimed that in December 1991, Chew had told him about the mutual life insurance policy and about the plan to kill Ms. Bowman for the proceeds.
Randy F., a Linden mechanic, provided another piece of the puzzle. Randy F. met Theresa in November 1992, while John was in Florida. They commenced an affair and she spoke of leaving Chew. Randy F. believed that Theresa planned to leave defendant and move in with him on January 13, 1993, after Chew received money from a settlement of an unrelated lawsuit. After the settlement, Chew was to give Ms. Bowman one of his cars and $10,000. Randy F. testified that Theresa phoned him on January 12 and said that she and Chew were driving to a location on the Garden State Parkway to pick up Chew's settlement check in the amount of $28,000.
Thus, the State had a specific reason for why Chew acted and when he did: the fear that Ms. Bowman was going to leave and
that Theresa might discontinue the life insurance policy. In the morning of January 23, the police left for Chew's residence to place him under arrest.
Chew's mother met the police at the door and informed them that he was sleeping. Police roused Chew and Detective Kerwin placed defendant under arrest. Chew asked the officers to bring medicine for his back pain. As defendant was leaving, in the custody of the police, he asked his mother to phone his attorney, Stephen Secare.
Another team of investigators went to defendant's sister's home. In the first of several additional statements, Crystal said that John had called her from his home on the night of the murder and asked her to pick him up from the Woodbridge Hilton later that night. Crystal said that John told her that he and Theresa were going to pick up Theresa's paycheck from her place of work, and that although defendant wanted to return immediately, Theresa intended to stay with friends.
Crystal arrived at the hotel parking lot at about 9:20 p.m. She spotted a Corvette, but she was not sure whether it was her brother's car. Crystal moved her car closer, and saw defendant get out of the Corvette. He was not injured, but there was blood on his clothes. Crystal denied having asked her brother any questions about what had happened.
Defendant removed his outer clothes, put them in a plastic bag, and instructed Helen (who had accompanied Crystal) to pour bleach into the bag. The bag and bleach were already in the car. Crystal denied seeing a knife. Defendant dumped the bag containing the bloodied clothes. Crystal told the police that after returning to Chew's home, he told her what to tell the police and threatened her to remain quiet.
Helen Borden told much the same story. She said that she heard a "scream" that she thought came from the Corvette. About a minute later, defendant came running out of the Corvette and got into the car.
Crystal, Helen, and defendant were brought to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. Crystal and...
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