State v. Hollander

• Decision Date: 16 May 1985
• Citation: 201 N.J.Super. 453,493 A.2d 563
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Bruce HOLLANDER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division

Page 453

201 N.J.Super. 453

493 A.2d 563

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Bruce HOLLANDER, Defendant-Appellant.

Superior Court of New Jersey,

Appellate Division.

Argued April 15, 1985.

Decided May 16, 1985.

Justin P. Walder, Roseland, for defendant-appellant (Walder, Sondak, Berkeley & Brogan, Roseland, attorneys; Justin P. Walder, Roseland, of counsel; Dominic J. Aprile and John A. Brogan, Roseland, on the brief).

Jeffrey W. Coghlan, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff-respondent (Irwin I. Kimmelman, Atty. Gen., attorney; Jeffrey W. Coghlan, of counsel and on the brief).

Before Judges MORTON I. GREENBERG, O'BRIEN and GAYNOR.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

MORTON I. GREENBERG, P.J.A.D.

This matter comes on before this court on appeal from a murder conviction. The unusual circumstances of the case require that we set forth the facts leading to defendant's indictment and conviction at length.

The victim in this case was Andrea Cella who was 19 years old and was employed at the Urban National Bank in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. On November 5, 1979 she arrived at the bank for work at approximately 7:45 a.m. Because her car was being repaired by her acquaintance Craig Farnsworth, she came in a 1975 four-door Plymouth Valiant hardtop she had borrowed from him. Andrea left the bank at approximately 5:00 p.m. and returned to her family's home three to four miles away. There she changed into jeans, a dark blue sweatshirt and hiking boots. After having dinner she left at approximately 6:30 p.m. and attended a scuba diving class from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. After the class Andrea went to the Brownstone Inn, a neighborhood bar in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Defendant Bruce Hollander was also at the Brownstone Inn that evening, arriving between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m. Defendant weighed between 200 and 230 pounds at the time. Defendant and Andrea had been good friends in high school, but apparently their relationship had cooled. Defendant, however, led a friend of his to believe that he had sexual feelings for Andrea.

Defendant and Andrea played a pinball machine in the gameroom area of the Brownstone Inn. Then Andrea left the gameroom area and went into the bar area where she sat and talked with some other friends. At approximately 11:15-11:20 p.m. Andrea called her father, informed him of her whereabouts and told him she would be home at 12:30 a.m. Shortly after midnight defendant and three male friends, Jerry DeFino, Brad Ranek and Ed Weaver, left the bar and went into the parking lot. Defendant and his friends then separated as the friends went to a diner whose operators did not permit defendant to enter. When defendant's friends left, Andrea was still in the bar and defendant headed back to that establishment. At approximately 11:30 to 11:45 p.m. Andrea told friends in the Brownstone Inn she was going home. At about midnight or shortly thereafter she was seen leaving the bar alone.

At about 5:00 a.m. Andrea's father called the Franklin Lakes police to report that Andrea had not arrived home. At approximately 5:40 a.m. Patrolman Scott Todd of the Wyckoff police department saw Farnsworth's car in the McDonald Realty parking lot across the street from the Brownstone Inn. This lot was often used by patrons of the Brownstone Inn. Todd had seen the car there earlier at approximately 12:30 a.m. and again at 2:30 a.m. Todd approached the car at approximately 5:40 a.m. and observed that the driver's side window was open, the keys were in the ignition and the passenger's side front door was unlocked. He noticed that the driver's seat was positioned far back so that there was a lot of room between the front of the seat and the dash area. He also observed a green canvas bag on the front seat of the car. Todd then went to the police headquarters for a short time but returned to the McDonald lot with Patrolman Schickfus. Todd looked through the canvas bag for identification and found a wet towel and a notebook with the name "Andrea Cella" on it. Todd then rolled up the car window, removed the keys from the ignition and locked up the car. He then brought the car keys to the Wyckoff police headquarters at about 6:30 a.m. on November 6.

At approximately 9:15 p.m. on November 6 Lieutenant Karl Neubler of the Wyckoff police and Detective Bernard Kenny of the Franklin Lakes police went to the Brownstone Inn and interviewed several patrons and employees. After about 45 minutes they left the Brownstone Inn and proceeded to the McDonald Realty lot and unlocked the vehicle to examine its contents. They then decided to take the car to the Wyckoff police headquarters for safekeeping. Neubler drove the car without adjusting the seat and only touched what was necessary to operate it. The vehicle was locked at the Wyckoff police department at approximately 10:25 p.m.

On Wednesday afternoon, November 7, 1979 at approximately 3:30 p.m. Andrea's body was discovered floating near the shoreline in a private lake called Shadow Lake, located in the Shadow Lake Estates residential section of Franklin Lakes, less than three blocks from her home. The police were notified and arrived at the scene at approximately 3:42 p.m. The body was then removed from the water. The blue sweatshirt Andrea had been wearing was pulled up close to her neck exposing her breasts. Her left foot was bare. Under the sweatshirt she had on a maroon and white turtleneck. Her bluejeans were secured around her waist. While the police at first saw no blood on her, when the body was lifted from the water her head tilted and she began purging blood from her nose and mouth.

An autopsy was conducted on November 8, 1979 by Medical Examiner Dr. Marlene Lengner. Lengner determined that the time of Andrea's death was approximately between 12:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning November 6. The cause of death was forced asphyxiation. Lengner thought that the forced asphyxiation was done by placing something over her face. The tissue over the esophagus was split. This indicated that force was used either in the stomach or lower chest where air that is usually in the stomach is forced upward. Lengner ruled out strangling and drowning as causes of death. She determined that the condition of the larynx indicated that there had been a good deal of force against it, and that edema or swelling in the larynx demonstrated that the victim had resisted the asphyxiation. Three bruises "the size of knuckles" probably caused by a blunt object prior to death were found in the head area. Lengner concluded that there were several signs of a violent struggle. The autopsy report showed that Andrea's height was 162 cm or 5'3"'' and her weight was 53.8 kgs. or 118 lbs. She was described as "short" and "small."

On Wednesday night November 7, after Andrea's body was discovered, Farnsworth's car was towed from the Wyckoff police headquarters to the Franklin Lakes police headquarters and processed for fingerprints. A partial left thumb print was discovered on the front seat adjustment knob which regulates the position of the seat forward or back but no other fingerprints of value were found.

The first police contact with defendant concerning the case seems to have been on Saturday, November 10, 1979. At approximately 9:00-9:30 p.m. on that day detectives Bruce Cameron and Kenny of the Franklin Lakes police department who were investigating the matter went to the Brownstone Inn where they met defendant. Cameron told defendant that they were asking the persons who had been at the Brownstone Inn on November 5 if they would voluntarily consent to having their fingerprints taken. Cameron asked defendant if he would consent to going to the Franklin Lakes police station that evening to be fingerprinted and defendant agreed. At approximately 10-10:30 p.m. defendant voluntarily went to the Franklin Lakes police station to be fingerprinted. He was given a voluntary consent agreement which he read and signed and his fingerprints were then taken. Cameron said he had trouble taking defendant's prints because defendant's fingers were short and stubby and were perspiring heavily. During the course of the investigation several hundred people, including patrons of the Brownstone Inn on November 5, 1979, were fingerprinted.

Defendant agreed to return to the police station the following day for an interview. On November 11, 1979 he came in and was interviewed by Cameron and another investigator. Defendant told them that on November 5, 1979 he arrived at the Brownstone Inn in his blue Dodge Colt between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. and met a friend in the parking lot. He then went inside and had a few drinks and played pinball. At approximately 10:00 p.m. he was playing pinball with Jerry DeFino when Andrea Cella walked in and played a game with him and DeFino. Defendant said that afterwards Andrea got up and went into the barroom. Defendant said that Andrea was wearing a sweatshirt but he could not recall her other clothing. Defendant stated that he left the Brownstone Inn at 11:00 p.m. with Brad Ranek and Jerry DeFino.

Investigators Robert Peacock and Randy Rocks, of the Bergen County Narcotics Task Force, assigned to assist the homicide squad of the Bergen County Prosecutor's office in the Andrea Cella investigation, went to the Brownstone Inn on November 14, 1979 as undercover agents. They talked to a number of people including defendant about the death of Andrea Cella. Peacock told defendant that the police had asked him what Andrea had been wearing and defendant told Peacock that he had been asked the same question. Peacock said he told defendant he didn't know and defendant looked at Peacock and said "I know better." Peacock told defendant that the newspaper said that Andrea had not been sexually abused and defendant stated "I know better" that she was. When Peacock asked defendant how he knew, defendant had no response.

Rocks had a conversation with defendant concerning Andrea's death. Defendant...