State v. Pitts

Decision Date21 June 1989
PartiesSTATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Darryl PITTS, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtNew Jersey Supreme Court

Benjamin Goldstein, for defendant-appellant (Maressa, Goldstein, Birsner, Patterson & Drinkwater, Berlin, attorneys).

Janet Flanagan, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff-respondent (W. Cary Edwards, Atty. Gen., attorney; Olivia Belfatto, Deputy Atty. Gen., of counsel; Janet Flanagan and Olivia Belfatto, on the briefs).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

STEIN, J.

Defendant, Darryl Pitts, was tried and convicted by a Camden County jury of the murders of Paul Reynolds and Stacey Elizardo. He was also convicted of several offenses based on events that occurred two days prior to the murders. Defendant was sentenced to death for the murder of Stacey Elizardo; he was sentenced to life imprisonment with thirty-years parole ineligibility for the murder of Paul Reynolds. Defendant appeals directly to this Court as of right. R. 2:2-1(a)(3). We affirm his convictions for murder and the related offenses.

The Attorney General acknowledges that defendant's death sentence must be reversed because the trial court's instructions to the jury on the balancing of aggravating and mitigating factors did not comply with the standards established in State v. Biegenwald, 106 N.J. 13, 53-67, 524 A.2d 130 (1987). We therefore set aside the death sentence and remand the matter to the trial court for a new sentencing proceeding.

I. Facts and Procedural History

The twelve-count indictment returned against the defendant included six counts charging offenses relating to the murders of Paul Reynolds and Stacey Elizardo on March 22, 1984, in Reynolds' apartment. In the remaining six counts, defendant was charged with various crimes allegedly committed on March 20, 1984, at Elizardo's townhouse in Lindenwold, New Jersey. Accordingly, the factual background essential to an understanding of the legal issues in this case commences with the events that occurred during the evening of March 20, 1984. The evidence produced at trial fully supports the following account of the material facts.

On March 20, 1984, defendant, an unemployed Vietnam War veteran, was in Elizardo's townhouse. At her request, defendant was watching one of Elizardo's two children while she and Paul Reynolds took her other child to the hospital. According to defendant, he and Elizardo had dated many times. They had been sexually intimate. Defendant acknowledged his deep affection for Elizardo.

In the course of the evening two other male friends of Elizardo visited her townhouse. The first was Paul Pencock, who had lived with Elizardo earlier that winter. He had come by to see her, and defendant invited him to stay and await her return. He testified that defendant expressed anger because Elizardo was out late with Reynolds.

Soon after Pencock's arrival, Vincent Della Polla, another friend of Elizardo, called to speak to Brian Gallo who shared the townhouse with Elizardo and her children. Pitts, representing himself to be Gallo, invited Della Pollo to the apartment. He arrived soon afterwards.

The three men discussed their feelings toward Elizardo while awaiting her return. Defendant stated that he loved her very much and questioned the other two about the depth of their affection for her. Pencock acknowledged that he also loved and cared about her; Della Polla told defendant that he cared for her but did not love her. Defendant's response to Della Polla was that he "shouldn't be here."

As time passed defendant became increasingly angry at Elizardo's failure to return home. Pitts blamed Reynolds for keeping her out late and said that he would "get" Reynolds. When Elizardo and Reynolds returned about 11:00 p.m., Pitts called her a "tramp" and demanded to know where she had been. Reynolds intervened and invited defendant into the living room to discuss his concerns, but defendant, glaring at Reynolds, did not leave the kitchen.

Defendant also made threatening statements to Elizardo, commenting that "it's getting closer to midnight." Elizardo told Della Polla that she interpreted defendant's words to mean that she would die at twelve o'clock. Elizardo then demanded that everyone leave the apartment. Suddenly, defendant grabbed a kitchen knife and held it against Della Polla's neck. He threatened to slit his throat, accusing Della Polla of having infected Elizardo with a venereal disease that she had subsequently transmitted to defendant. Della Polla pushed defendant away. Defendant then left the apartment with Pencock, who had offered to drive him home. Reynolds left at the same time, leaving Elizardo with Della Polla.

Pencock drove Pitts home and returned to Elizardo's apartment. According to Della Polla, Pitts telephoned Elizardo several times and made threatening remarks. This prompted Della Polla to offer to take Elizardo to his house. She refused, stating that "nobody is going to throw me out of my own house."

Shortly thereafter, defendant returned to the apartment and sat down at the kitchen table with Elizardo, Pencock, and Della Polla. Pitts was carrying a rifle with a pistol- type handle which he pointed at Della Polla saying, "We are going to talk." Pencock then told Della Polla to leave, and Della Polla walked out of the apartment. Pitts followed him out, as did Pencock. Pitts, holding the gun with his finger on the trigger, said he was going to shoot Della Polla. Pencock intervened, standing between Pitts and Della Polla, who then got into his car and drove away.

Pitts returned to the apartment waving the rifle, and directed his anger at Elizardo, calling her a "tramp" and a "whore." When Pencock attempted to take the rifle from defendant, it fell to the ground and discharged. Pencock picked up the weapon, removed the clip, which he placed in his pocket, and hid the rifle under the cushion of a couch. Subsequently, at defendant's insistence, Pencock returned the rifle to him without the clip.

Defendant, Pencock, and Elizardo remained in the apartment until about 5:00 a.m., when Pencock awakened her and told her that he had to leave. Elizardo assured Pencock that she would be safe in the apartment with defendant. Defendant left Elizardo's apartment the next morning. Pencock returned to Elizardo's apartment late in the afternoon of March 21, bringing with him the gun clip that defendant had asked Elizardo to retrieve for him. Pencock stayed at the apartment overnight. On Thursday morning, March 22, Paul Reynolds arrived, and he and Elizardo left the apartment together.

That same morning Pitts asked James Gibbs, his downstairs neighbor, to drive him on a few errands. Defendant offered to pay for gasoline and assured Gibbs they would return within forty-five minutes. They first drove to the apartment of Patricia Woods, defendant's former wife, but defendant observed that her car was not in the parking lot. They proceeded to a liquor store where Pitts purchased a six-pack of beer. Pitts drank half of a bottle of beer as they drove to Paul Reynolds' apartment. Gibbs parked the car and waited while Pitts proceeded to Reynolds' apartment. Outside the apartment door Pitts encountered Michael Sarich who was visiting Reynolds to repay a debt. According to Sarich, a woman's shoes and coat were in plain view in Reynolds' living room. Sarich departed, leaving Reynolds and Pitts together in the apartment. The two quickly became engaged in a heated argument. Pitts, the only survivor of the ensuing encounter, has offered several different accounts of the events that followed.

In his first statement to police officers following his arrest, defendant attributed the murders of Reynolds and Elizardo to an unidentified male who was waiting at Reynolds' apartment door when Pitts arrived for the purpose of buying some marijuana. According to Pitts, the assailant "freaked," pulled out a knife, and stabbed Reynolds. He then stabbed Elizardo as she attempted to run from the apartment. Pitts said that his hands were smeared with blood when he attempted to render first aid. He denied responsibility for either homicide.

Defendant gave a second statement to the police at 2:10 a.m. on March 23, approximately an hour after he completed his first statement. In the second statement, Pitts acknowledged responsibility for both homicides. Pitts said that he and Reynolds argued about seven hundred dollars that Reynolds owed him.

They owed me. At that time they owed me seven hundred dollars and Paul's been holding and holding and holding and he's been bullshitting me * * *.

* * * I tried to get [the money] from [Reynolds]. When he started getting shitty with me, that's when I got shitty back. That's when--what the fuck are you doing? I says, mother, I told you don't fuck with me, and he did.

According to defendant, he then pulled out a black Army "survival" knife and cut Reynolds' throat:

He was cut but it wasn't severe enough but you can cut a human being and usually they'll stay alive three minutes. That's a known fact. According to you gentlemen, he was stabbed. All this is going on fast. This couldn't have taken no more than ten, 15 seconds. When [Stacy] came out of the room, what the fuck you doing, jerkoff, and on and on and on. I said because my fucking money is not in my hand and it went on. That's when I, you know, attacked her. * * * [After Reynolds had fallen against the wall, Stacy] went into hysterics. And when the hysterics went down, that's when I fucked up * * *.

I guess originally it started as a struggle because I grabbed her and I tried to cut her throat. I told you before, you can use [the combat knife for] cutting someone's throat.

Defendant indicated that he twice attempted to cut Elizardo's throat, but did not recall stabbing any other part of her body. He stated that he "took the pulse" of both victims, and determined that both were dead.

Both of defendant's...

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