State v. Noel

• Decision Date: 17 May 1926
• Citation: 133 A. 274
• Parties: STATE v. NOEL.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

133 A. 274

STATE

v. NOEL.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

May 17, 1926.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Black, J., dissenting; Kalisch, J., dissenting in part, but concurring in the result.

Error to Court of Oyer and Terminer, Essex County.

Harrison W. Noel was convicted of first degree murder and he brings error. Reversed. See, also, 131 A. 70.

William Wachenfeld, of Newark (Merritt Lane, of Newark, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

John O. Bigelow, of Newark, for the State.

KATZENBACH, J. The plaintiff in error, Harrison W. Noel (hereinafter referred to as the defendant or Noel) was convicted in the Essex oyer and terminer of murder in the first degree without recommendation of life imprisonment. The indictment under which he was tried and convicted charged him with the murder of Raymond Pearce, on the 3d day of September, 1925. The trial judge had no alternative, in view of the verdict of the jury, except to sentence the defendant to death. This sentence was pronounced.

The writ of error directed to the Essex oyer and terminer brings up the record of the conviction. The questions presented to this court for its decision can be better understood and considered if a review is made of the crime for which the defendant was convicted, and a brief history of the life of the defendant, prior to September 3, 1925, is given.

Raymond Pearce was a chauffeur. He drove a taxicab, a Dodge touring car, license No. 0722. He was last seen alive at the railroad station in the town of Montclair in Essex county on Thursday, September 3d, at about 1:30 p. m. On Saturday, September 5th, at 5 p. m., Herbert H. Matts was walking along the Little Falls road at Cedar Grove, in Essex county. When he arrived at the bridge over the Peckham river he looked through the brush at the side of the road. His eye was attracted to something white. He made an investigation. He found the dead body of a man, afterwards identified as Raymond Pearce. The white article which he had seen from the road was the shirt upon the body of Pearce. Pearce had been killed by a 32 caliber steel jacketed bullet. This bullet had entered the lower back part of Pearce's head. The pistol from which it had been discharged had been held so close to the head of Pearce that the scalp showed a slight burn. A physician, at 11 p. m. on the same day, performed an autopsy. He was of the opinion that Pearce had been dead longer than 14 hours and less than 48 hours, and probably in the neighborhood of 24 hours. On Saturday, September 5th, at 11:20 a. m., the taxicab, driven by Pearce, was found near Bradford avenue, Cedar Grove, in the woods. Near the place where the taxicab was found was a stone quarry. On Friday, September 4, 1925, at about 11:30 a. m., the wife of the chief of police of Cedar Grove had noticed near the quarry a maroon Overland touring car, bearing the license number 156433 N. J. She told her husband what she had seen. This information was imparted to Fred Gallagher, a Montclair detective, who called up the license bureau at Trenton and received the information that the license number 156433 N. J. had been issued for a car belonging to the Noel family. "Upon receiving this information the detective immediately went to the Noel home on North Mountain avenue, Montclair. He talked with the defendant and then took him to police headquarters. On Sunday, September 6th, Gallagher searched the room of Noel. He found upon the floor beggar lice, a variety of weed which grew in the woods near Bradford avenue, Cedar Grove. A box of 32 caliber steel jacketed bullets and a receipt for a 32 caliber Spanish automatic pistol were also found in the room of Noel. The receipt showed that the pistol had been purchased on August 24, 1925, at a sporting goods store in New York City. The receipt was made to Wallace Payne, Palls road, Little Falls, N. J. The manager of the store where the pistol had been bought testified at the trial that the pistol had been bought and mailed to Wallace Payne at the address mentioned. The postmaster at Little Falls identified Noel as the one who had received a package 8 inches long and 5 or 6 inches wide on August 25, 1925. A Spanish automatic pistol was found under the back seat of the maroon Overland touring car. Stains were observed by Capt. Mason, of the Essex county prosecutor's office, on the coat of Noel, and on the leather cushion of the front seat of the Dodge taxicab of Pearce. Examination of these stains showed that they were spots of the blood of mammals.

On Friday, September 4, 1925, at about noon, John Sandin, a chauffeur in the employ of Mr. J. A. Bower, residing at 136 Upper Mountain avenue in the town of Montclair, was cleaning a Buick sedan car. A commotion took place in front of the premises. A Dodge touring car bearing the license 0722, N. J., was pointed out to Sandin. He followed the Dodge car, with the Buick car, for some 8 or 9 miles and pulled the Buick car alongside of it. The defendant, Noel, was sitting in the driver's seat. Alongside of him was a little girl about 6 years of age, whose name Sandin afterwards learned was Mary Daly. The defendant stopped his car, reached for a pistol, obtained it, and shot Sandin in the head. Sandin recovered, but remembered nothing which occurred after he had been shot.

Detective Gallagher, as has been stated, first saw Noel at his home on Saturday, September 5th, at about 5 p. m. Noel was questioned regarding the whereabouts on Friday of the Overland car. He insisted that he had driven the car to Morristown, N. J., on that day. This was in contradiction of the reports that had been made to Gallagher. The defendant was then taken by Gallagher to police headquarters and questioned continuously until 5 a. m. on Sunday, September 6th. About 3 or 4 a. m., he admitted having taken the child, Mary Daly. He said that she was alive and that he wanted $4,000 for her return. During the night he was besought by some five police officials, two physicians who had previously attended the defendant at the Overbrook Hospital for the Insane, his mother, and the father of Mary Daly, to tell where the child might be found. The police offered to pay him $4,000 or more. Noel was also told he would not be returned to the Over brook Hospital if he revealed the whereabouts of the little girl. Mr. Daly, the father of Mary Daly, told Noel that, if he would tell him where his little girl was, he would not prosecute him at all. At about 5 a. m. on Sunday, Noel said that he would show them where Mary Daly was. He went in an automobile with several officers and directed that the car be driven from Montclair up through Little Falls, and then up a back road to a point where he directed the driver to stop. They all got out, and Noel said: "There she is." The body of Mary Daly was discovered. She had been shot in the side of the head. The defendant was then brought back to police headquarters. He was then asked what he had done with Pearce. He said he had shot Pearce. He then went in an automobile with members of the police force and directed them to the place on Bradford avenue where he had shot Pearce. He was then asked what had become of the gun and he said it was under the rear seat of his car. The Overland car was searched in the Noel garage and the pistol was found in the place Noel had designated. Upon his return to the Montclair police headquarters from the second automobile trip, Noel was told by Captain Mason that he desired him to make a statement of everything he had done. Noel was then warned that such a statement would be used against him, and he replied that that was all right. In answer to questions asked him by a detective, Thomas Diamond, a statement was prepared, which was handed to the defendant. He read it and signed it about 7:30 p. m. on Sunday, September 6th. The statement described the purchase of the revolver, the formation of an intention to kidnap a young girl who lived at 136 Upper Mountain avenue in Montclair for the purpose of obtaining money from her parents for her return, the details of the killing of Pearce in order to obtain the use of his car, the seizing of Mary Daly in front of 136 Upper Mountain avenue, the pursuit of his car, the firing of the revolver at his pursuers, the killing of Mary Daly, the driving of the Dodge car to the woods near Bradford avenue, the obtaining of his Overland car, the driving to his home and putting on clean clothes, obtaining books at the library, going to a telephone booth, finding the name of Mr. J. A. Bower in the telephone directory as the person residing at No. 136 Upper Mountain avenue, telephoning to the house, asking a woman who answered the telephone if she was interested in a little girl that had been taken away that morning, and, upon receiving an affirmative answer, stating that he wanted $4,000 ransom for her return, and telling her there were some banks open in the theatre district in Upper New York City, a visit to New York on the following day, and the call of Mr. Gallagher upon him, and his accompanying him to the police headquarters.

The following is a brief history of the defendant:

He is 20 years of age. He Was born in New York City and lived for 15 years in the town of Montclair. His parents are living. He has a brother and a sister. His father was intemperate after his marriage to the defendant's mother. On his mother's side there exists a strain of insanity. A sister of his mother committed suicide at the age of 20 years. She suffered from melancholia. Two of the five children of his maternal grandparents were abnormal. The defendant attended school in Montclair. He seemed to have had no difficulties in his studies until his junior year in the high school. He then failed in all of his examinations at the close of the school year. He studied during the summer and passed successfully the subjects in which he had failed. He completed his senior year. He passed the college board examinations for Harvard. He...