State v. Feaster

• Decision Date: 30 July 1998
• Citation: 716 A.2d 395,156 N.J. 1
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Richard FEASTER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

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156 N.J. 1

716 A.2d 395

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Richard FEASTER, Defendant-Appellant.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued Oct. 21, 1997.

Decided July 30, 1998.

Abby P. Schwartz and Ruth Bove Carlucci, Assistant Deputy Public Defenders, for defendant-appellant (Ivelisse Torres, Public Defender, attorney).

Debra A. Owens, Deputy Attorney General, for plaintiff-respondent (Peter Verniero, Attorney General of New Jersey, attorney).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

STEIN, J.

Defendant, Richard Feaster, was tried and convicted of the following offenses in connection with the death of Keith Donaghy: purposeful-or-knowing murder by his own conduct, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3a(1) and/or (2); felony murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3a(3); conspiracy to commit murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:5-2; first-degree robbery, N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1; conspiracy to commit armed robbery, N.J.S.A. 2C:5-2; possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4a; and possession of a sawed-off shotgun, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-3b.

In accordance with the penalty-phase verdict rendered after a separate proceeding following the murder conviction, see N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(1), defendant was sentenced to death. On the noncapital counts, defendant's conspiracy convictions merged into the related substantive offenses, and the felony murder conviction was merged into the conviction for purposeful-or-knowing murder. The court also merged the conviction for possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose into the robbery/murder convictions. The court then imposed a consecutive twenty-year term with ten years of parole ineligibility on the robbery conviction as well as a five-year concurrent term on the conviction for possession of a sawed-off shotgun.

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Defendant appeals as of right to this Court. N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3e; R. 2:2-1(a)(3). We affirm defendant's convictions and sentence of death.

I Facts

Jury selection for defendant's trial began in Gloucester County on December 5, 1995. Because voir dire revealed that many potential jurors in the area had knowledge of a second murder for which defendant was separately charged, the attendant risk of prejudice led the court to discontinue Gloucester County jury selection on January 3, 1996. On January 12, 1996, the court ordered that a foreign jury from Salem County be impaneled to hear the case. The guilt phase of defendant's trial took place from February 28 through March 15, 1996. The court conducted the penalty phase on March 21, 22, 25, 26 and 27, 1996.

A. The State's Case

The following summary of the trial proofs fairly represents the evidence that supported the jury's guilt-phase verdict.

1. Events Before the Murder

The events culminating in the October 6, 1993, death of Keith Donaghy originated within a circle of young friends from Gloucester County. The principle members of this group included defendant, Michael Mills, Michael Sadlowski, James Graves and Daniel Kaighn. Defendant was a native of Woodbury Heights while the others were from National Park, another Gloucester County municipality.

Several weeks before the killing, defendant approached Kaighn and asked to borrow a handgun. Defendant explained that he needed a weapon to collect money that his boss owed to him. Defendant alleged that his boss was a "crazy ex-Vietnam vet," and that the gun was necessary for his protection. After repeated

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requests spanning several weeks, and upon defendant's promise to pay $100 for one day's use of the gun, Kaighn acquiesced. He supplied defendant with a sawed-off twenty-gauge shotgun, a single lead ball, commonly referred to as a "slug," and three or four "birdshot." Kaighn had previously sawed the barrel from the gun and retained the barrel in his bedroom. Defendant picked up the gun from Kaighn's house two weeks prior to the murder and placed it in a blue gym bag. He told Kaighn to meet him at Michael Mills's house later that night.

That evening, Kaighn arrived at Mills's house at approximately 8:30 p.m. Shortly thereafter, defendant arrived and returned the gun to Kaighn along with all the ammunition he had been given earlier in the day. He presented Kaighn with $30, explaining that his boss failed to pay him the full amount owed to him. Others were present at Mills's house that night, and a party soon began, during which Kaighn left and hid the gun and ammunition underneath an old bathtub outside the house. Kaighn testified that the cocaine he ingested at the party had left him "paranoid," and that he did not want to leave with the gun on his person because of his fear of apprehension by law enforcement authorities. According to Kaighn, that was the last time he saw the gun until after the murder, although he acknowledged that he subsequently may have told Mills where the gun was hidden.

Tina Shiplee lived with Michael Sadlowski in an apartment in Runnemede. Shiplee and defendant's girlfriend, Kelly Zuzulock, frequently socialized with the other members of the group. Shiplee testified that in late September or early October 1993, defendant approached her and asked if he could keep a gym bag in her car, explaining that his parents had recently "kicked him out" of their house. Shiplee obliged, and allowed defendant to store the bag in the back of her station wagon. She was unsure whether defendant or Mills placed the bag in the car.

Subsequently, but still prior to the murder, Shiplee went to place her daughter's stroller in the back of the car. As she attempted to move the bag, she realized how heavy it was.

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Shiplee felt the outside of the bag and suspected that it contained a gun.

2. The Night of the Murder

On October 6, 1993, Shiplee drove her station wagon to pick up Kelly Zuzulock and proceed to the Columbia Cafe, a bar in National Park in Gloucester County. Zuzulock and defendant had dated on and off since high school, and had resumed their relationship after defendant returned from a brief residence in Florida. During the weeks leading up to the murder, Zuzulock testified that their relationship had become precarious, characterized by frequent arguments. She attributed the deterioration of the relationship to their increasing drug use.

Shiplee picked up Zuzulock and the two arrived at the Columbia Cafe sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. Defendant, Mills, Sadlowski, and others were already there. According to Sadlowski, he drove Shiplee's other car, a 1986 Chevrolet Camaro, and brought both defendant and Michael Mills to the Columbia Cafe. The group had gathered for a pool tournament being held at the bar. Shiplee approached defendant, and without revealing her concern that the gym bag contained a gun, requested that he remove the bag from her car. Defendant agreed to remove the bag before leaving that night, although Shiplee was unsure whether it was Mills or defendant who eventually took the bag from the car. Shiplee had left the car unlocked in the parking lot. On leaving the Columbia Cafe later that night, she observed that the bag had been removed from her car.

Shortly after arriving, Mills inquired of Sadlowski whether he could take the Camaro and drive defendant to retrieve money from defendant's boss. Sadlowski declined the request. Defendant then asked Shiplee if Sadlowski could borrow her car to drive defendant to collect money from his boss. Having been instructed previously that night by Sadlowski that she should not lend her car to defendant, Shiplee refused. Defendant then asked Shiplee if she would drive him, or whether she would allow him to take the

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car himself. Shiplee rejected each request. Defendant also asked Zuzulock if he could borrow her car, but she also refused and explained that she did not have access to it.

Renee Burkhardt, a resident of National Park, had also driven to the Columbia Cafe on the evening of October 6. Burkhardt described defendant as a "friend of a friend," and knew Mills because he was dating her friend Jennifer Stryzek. After speaking with defendant, Mills approached Burkhardt and asked to borrow her car. Burkhardt agreed and handed the keys to Mills.

Burkhardt testified that after she gave Mills the keys to her mother's 1984 Oldsmobile, she observed Mills and defendant leave the Columbia Cafe and enter the car, with Mills in the driver's seat. Zuzulock also testified that she saw defendant leaving the bar at around 8:00 p.m., and that Mills followed a few minutes later. Shiplee similarly testified that a few minutes after she saw defendant leave the bar, Mills left with Renee Burkhardt. She stated that defendant and Mills left between 8:00 and 8:15 p.m. However, Sadlowski testified that they left between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. Shiplee then observed Burkhardt return to the bar shortly thereafter.

On the night of October 6, 1993, Keith Donaghy was the only attendant working at the Family Texaco in Deptford Township. Dana Smolenski, a frequent patron of the gas station, pulled into the Texaco to purchase gasoline between 8:20 and 8:25 p.m. When no attendant came to serve her, she pulled her car nearer to the office window and peered inside. She observed that the chair on which Donaghy usually sat had been knocked over, and saw his body on the floor. Frightened, Smolenski quickly drove away, noticing that it was 8:25 p.m. John Fortner, another frequent customer, arrived at the Family Texaco around 8:30 p.m. After pumping the kerosene he used for his heaters, Fortner approached the office to pay and saw Donaghy lying on the floor inside. He walked to the nearby 7-Eleven and requested that someone call the police. At about the same time, another couple made a similar request at the 7-Eleven after noticing Donaghy's

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body. The Family Texaco is approximately a twelve-minute drive from the Columbia Cafe.

Roughly thirty to forty-five minutes after leaving the bar, defendant called Zuzulock at the Columbia Cafe from a pay phone. Zuzulock did not recall what the conversation was about. Shortly...