State v. Harvey

Decision Date18 October 1990
PartiesSTATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Nathaniel HARVEY, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtNew Jersey Supreme Court

Edward A. Kopelson and Robert D. Westreich, Designated Counsel, argued the cause for defendant-appellant (Thomas S. Smith, Jr., Acting Public Defender, attorney).

Lisa Sarnoff Gochman, Deputy Atty. Gen., argued the cause for plaintiff-respondent (Robert J. Del Tufo, Atty. Gen., attorney).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

CLIFFORD, J.

Defendant, Nathaniel Harvey, appeals from a capital-murder conviction and death sentence. Because the trial court's jury instructions at the guilt phase did not comply with our later holding in State v. Gerald, 113 N.J. 40, 549 A.2d 792 (1988), we reverse the conviction and remand for a new trial.

I

--A--

After Irene Schnaps failed to appear for work on June 17, 1985, a colleague went to her apartment at the Hunter's Glen complex in Plainsboro. When no one answered, he entered through the unlocked door and found Schnaps dead on the bedroom floor. She had suffered severe head and facial wounds.

The police found an empty box for a Seiko LaSalle watch on the dressing table in the bedroom. An empty camera box was in the closet, and an open purse sat atop the vanity in the bathroom. A pillowcase had a bloody sneaker print bearing a chevron design and the letters "PON." There were no signs of forced entry; the sliding glass door was closed but unlocked.

Dr. Martin Shuster performed an autopsy. He concluded that Schnaps had suffered numerous skull fractures, a fractured jaw, and a deep laceration on her skull. Dr. Shuster believed that she had been struck at least fifteen times with a blunt object. Pressure applied to her neck for an hour had caused contusions. In Dr. Shuster's opinion, a brief interval separated the first blow and death. He could not determine which blows had been fatal and which had been inflicted after the victim's death.

--B--

On October 28, 1985, the police arrested defendant on suspicion of kidnapping and burglary. Following several interrogations over the next three days, defendant admitted that he had killed Irene Schnaps. He said that on June 16 he had gone to the Hunter's Glen apartment complex. Entering Schnaps' apartment through an unlocked patio door, he went into the bedroom, where he took a watch and some jewelry from the dresser. Schnaps, who had been sleeping, woke up and punched him in the nose, causing it to bleed. Defendant then struck her in the head with a "hammer-like" object, knocking her to the ground. Afraid that the blood from his nose had stained the sheets, he replaced them with clean ones from the closet. He then retrieved a towel from the bathroom and wiped the blood off of Schnaps' body. After collecting the bed sheets, the towel, the watch, a camera, and other pieces of jewelry, he left the apartment.

A jury convicted defendant of the knowing and purposeful murder of Irene Schnaps, felony murder, first-degree robbery, and second-degree burglary. Following a penalty-phase proceeding on the capital-murder conviction, the trial court sentenced defendant to death.

II

We first consider defendant's contention that the trial court's failure to instruct the jury separately for the crimes of knowingly or purposely causing death (intentional murder) and of knowingly or purposely causing serious bodily injury resulting in death (serious-bodily-injury murder) requires reversal of his conviction. In State v. Gerald, supra, 113 N.J. at 69, 549 A.2d 792, we held that a person who is convicted of serious-bodily-injury murder under N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3(a)(1) or (2) may not be sentenced to death. If the evidence provides a rational basis for a jury to convict a defendant of either intentional or serious-bodily-injury murder, the trial court "must instruct the jury to specify which, if [either], of those findings forms the basis for a conviction." State v. Coyle, 119 N.J. 194, 209, 574 A.2d 951 (1990).

In arguing that there was no rational basis for a finding of serious-bodily-injury murder, the State points to the medical evidence suggesting that the victim had been hit fifteen times in the head with a blunt instrument and that her neck had been squeezed for an hour. The victim's jaw was broken. Defendant confessed that he had hit her with a "hammer-like object."

Of course, such repeated blows can support a jury finding of intentional murder. However, the issue here, as in other pre-Gerald capital cases, is whether that was the jury's determination. The jury was not asked to distinguish between intentional murder and serious-bodily-injury murder. Its verdict did not indicate which of the two it found to apply to this case. Although it might seem probable that the jury had intentional murder in mind, the question is whether there is a rational basis in the evidence on which the jury, if instructed to distinguish between the two, might return a verdict of serious-bodily-injury murder. If there is, then the jury, as the finder of fact, must decide the matter. An appellate court cannot.

The State conceded that defendant's initial intent was to commit burglary, not murder. Defendant confessed that he had struck the victim only once, in response to being hit in the nose. That evidence suggests that defendant may have intended only to injure the victim, not to kill her. We note too that while arguing for purposes of the Gerald issue that the number of blows inflicted unquestionably establishes an intention to kill, the State claims for penalty-phase purposes that the first blows were intended to injure and inflict pain before death rather than to kill. See infra at 434, 581 A.2d at 496 (discussion of c(4)(c) aggravating factor).

The jury was free to reject the pathologist's testimony and accept the other evidence that indicated a lack of murderous intent. See State v. Crisantos (Arriagas), 102 N.J. 265, 273, 508 A.2d 167 (1986) (a jury has "the power to disregard even overwhelming proof"). This was not merely a one-issue case requiring the jury to determine only whether defendant had in fact been the one who had inflicted the intentionally-fatal blows. The mental state of the perpetrator was also clearly in issue here. The trial court instructed the jury not just on capital murder, but also on felony-murder, aggravated manslaughter, and manslaughter. Obviously, then, the trial court believed the evidence would allow the jury rationally to convict on one of those counts while acquitting defendant on capital murder. A rational jury could have concluded that defendant inflicted the fatal blows but had not intended to kill. The determination of whether defendant had the mens rea necessary to permit the State to put him to death is quintessentially one that our system of law entrusts to juries. All mental states related to the law of homicide were developed over a long period of history for the purpose of distinguishing capital murders from others. Wechsler & Michael, "A Rationale of the Law of Homicide I," 37 Colum.L.Rev. 701 (1937). Determining a defendant's mental state is the special function of the jury, not of this Court.

The record provided "a rational basis for the jury to find that the defendant intended to cause only serious bodily injury." State v. Coyle, supra, 119 N.J. at 209, 574 A.2d 951. Because the trial court understandably failed to anticipate Gerald and did not instruct the jury to distinguish that offense from intentional murder, we reverse defendant's capital-murder conviction.

III

We turn now to those alleged errors that might arise again at retrial.

--A--

Defendant argues that the trial court should have suppressed his confession. He claims that on five occasions he asserted his right to remain silent, but that the police did not "scrupulously honor" his invocations. See Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 103-04, 96 S.Ct. 321, 326, 46 L.Ed.2d 313, 321 (1975). Defendant contends that the police violated the bright-line test adopted in State v. Hartley, 103 N.J. 252, 511 A.2d 80 (1986), by not re-informing him of his Miranda rights after each invocation of his right. He also alleges that his confession was not voluntary.

--1--

The police arrested defendant at about 7:30 a.m. on October 28, 1985. When they reached the station an hour later, the police read the Miranda warnings to defendant, who then signed a rights form. The police did not question him that morning.

At 3:37 that afternoon, Sergeant Hibbs and Detective Swanhart began interrogating defendant. They again gave Miranda warnings to defendant, who signed another rights form. After eliciting personal information from defendant, the police started asking him about other crimes. At about 4:10 p.m. they questioned him about the Schnaps murder. Defendant denied responsibility, began to cry, and "asked for time to think, he wanted time by himself * * *." The questioning ceased and the police returned defendant to his cell. Forty minutes later the police brought defendant back to the interrogation room. On the way an officer "reminded" him of his rights but did not issue the formal Miranda warnings. When the police asked defendant about the Schnaps murder, he again began crying and said: "[B]efore I talk or say anything else I want to talk to my mother-in-law Pearl Thomas."

Thomas arrived at the station an hour later and spoke with defendant for five minutes in his cell. At 7:30 p.m. the police took defendant back into the interrogation room. They gave him no Miranda warnings or reminders. When the police broached the Schnaps murder at 8:00 p.m., defendant again began to cry and said that he "just didn't do anything." According to one of the officers, the questioning then ended, "not at his request or our request, it was a mutual thing." Defendant was returned to his cell.

Fifteen minutes later defendant asked to speak with Detective Swanhart alone. Swanhart "remin...

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