State v. Williams

• Decision Date: 22 June 1988
• Citation: 543 A.2d 965,226 N.J.Super. 94
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Jackie WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division

Page 94

226 N.J.Super. 94

543 A.2d 965

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Jackie WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.

Superior Court of New Jersey,

Appellate Division.

Submitted Feb. 24, 1988.

Decided June 22, 1988.

Alfred A. Slocum, Public Defender, for appellant (Philip V. Lago, Designated Atty., of counsel and on the letter brief).

W. Cary Edwards, Atty. Gen., for respondent (Nancy A. Hulett, Deputy Atty. Gen., of counsel and on the brief).

Before Judges FURMAN, LONG and SCALERA.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

LONG, J.A.D.

After a jury trial, defendant, Jackie Williams and her codefendant, John Wesley Williams, were convicted of felony murder (robbery) in violation of N.J.S.A. 2A:113-1, 2A:113-2 and 2A:85-14; robbery in violation of N.J.S.A. 2A:141-1 and 2A:85-14, and armed robbery in violation of N.J.S.A. 2A:141-1, 2A:151-5, 2A:85-14. Another codefendant, Samuel Seabrook, whose appeal we have also decided today, was convicted of felony murder. A third codefendant, Leonard Williams, was acquitted of the charges against him. (Jackie and John Williams are brother and sister; Leonard is their cousin.) Jackie Williams was sentenced to a custodial term of life in prison for felony murder and to two ten-year custodial terms on the other convictions to be served concurrently with the life sentence imposed. She appeals, claiming that the following errors warrant reversal:

POINT I:

THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR IN DENYING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR ACQUITTAL UNDER RULE 3:18-1.

POINT II:

THE DEFENDANT WAS DENIED THE EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL [NOT PRESENTED BELOW].

POINT III:

THE SENTENCE IMPOSED WAS MANIFESTLY EXCESSIVE AND CONSTITUTES AN ABUSE OF DISCRETION.

POINT IV:

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL BASED ON NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE.

POINT V:

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO ADMIT THE RESULT OF A POLYGRAPH EXAMINATION.

We have carefully reviewed this record and have concluded that these contentions are entirely lacking in merit. R. 2:11-3(e)(2). However, Williams obliquely raised another claim in Point II of her brief which we believe warrants reversal: that certain actions of the prosecutor denied her Sixth Amendment right of confrontation.

The following is a summary of the facts in the case: On September 12, 1976, Frank Terrizzi, an attendant at the Arco gas station located at Pearl and Washington Streets in Bridgeton, New Jersey, was murdered. Approximately $56.00 in cash was taken from Terrizzi's pants pocket.

On the evening of the murder, Arthur Meade, a resident of Bridgeton, left his house at 8:00 p.m. to visit his sister, whose house on Pearl Street stood across the street from the Arco gas station. While walking to her house, Meade stopped at a local store to buy some cigarettes. There, Jackie Williams asked him for a match. When Meade left the store, he again saw Jackie Williams standing at the corner of Washington and Pearl Streets.

Meade proceeded onto Pearl Street before reaching his sister's house. There, he saw codefendants John Wesley Williams and Samuel Seabrook in an alleyway between two houses. He also noticed a bicycle wheel sticking out from the alleyway. Meade arrived at his sister's house between 8:40 and 9:00 p.m. Standing on the front steps of the house and looking out onto Pearl Street, Meade saw Seabrook walk across Pearl Street with a bicycle and enter the service area of the Arco station. According to Meade, by that time John Williams was no longer on the scene. While waiting for someone to answer his sister's door, Meade heard a gunshot. When no one answered the door, Meade left. Before getting home, he saw Seabrook race past him on a bicycle after emerging from the opposite end of the same alleyway where Meade had seen him with John Wesley Williams (Laurel Street). ¹

Janie Brown Lewis, another resident of Bridgeton, lived on Washington Street, which is perpendicular to Pearl and Laurel Streets. On the evening of the murder, while Lewis was sitting on her front porch, she saw Jackie Williams, together with two men, walk past her house. One of the men with Jackie Williams pushed a bicycle. Approximately 10 minutes after Jackie Williams passed her house, Lewis heard police sirens. She followed the sirens and saw police cars at the Arco gas station. She could not see what had happened because a police officer directed people away from the station.

At approximately 9:05 p.m., about 15 minutes before the police arrived on the scene of the murder, William Sease pulled into the Arco station to buy some gas. He saw Terrizzi lying on the floor near a car in the service area. Sease apparently assumed Terrizzi was working on the car. Sease waited for service, but no one came to fill his tank. While he waited, Jackie Williams walked over to his car from across the street and asked him for a ride. She identified herself and told Sease she knew his children from school. Sease refused to give her a ride. In the meantime, a man who had been using a public telephone on Pearl Street walked into the station and discovered that Terrizzi had been shot. Jackie Williams followed him into the bay area of the garage. Terrizzi died shortly after being taken to a nearby hospital.

Sometime after the murder, Marcus King came forward and turned over to the police a .22 caliber revolver which he bought from Seabrook for $20. The bullet retrieved from Terrizzi's body was not a .22 caliber revolver bullet, but could have been fired from the gun sold to King by Seabrook.

Around September 14, 1976, Leon Loatman, a classmate and friend of Terrizzi's who wanted to find out who had murdered Terrizzi, made up the story that his wife had a relative who had witnessed the murder. Loatman, an employee at a Bridgeton liquor store, circulated his story by telling it to approximately ten customers. After the story circulated, John Wesley Williams and another man came into the liquor store and asked Loatman for the eyewitnesses' name and address. Loatman said he did not have the information. The two men then left the store. About one to two weeks later, Leonard Williams came to the liquor store and inquired about Loatman's eyewitness. No one, other than John and Leonard Williams, came to inquire about Loatman's eyewitness story.

A previous trial concerning the murder of Frank Terrizzi had been held in July 1977. ² On November 25, 1980, codefendant Samuel Seabrook confessed to Terrizzi's murder. Before confessing, Seabrook spoke with the officer who processed him and told him he was at the police station for robbery and "a guilty conscious." In a taped confession, Seabrook told the police he rode into the Arco gas station on a bicycle. He approached Terrizzi and demanded money. When Terrizzi moved in a threatening manner toward Seabrook, Seabrook shot him once with a .22 caliber revolver. After the shooting, Seabrook took some money from Terrizzi's pocket and fled. Seabrook also told the police that he sold the .22 caliber revolver used in the murder to Marcus King. Seabrook indicated in his confession that John and Jackie Williams were nearby but were not involved in the crime. Jackie Williams testified in her own behalf and acknowledged her presence near the scene of the murder but denied any involvement.

The sum and substance of the State's case against Jackie Williams came from Meade and Sease who placed her near the scene of the crime around the time it occurred. Indeed, in opposition to Jackie Williams' motion for judgment of acquittal at the end of the State's case, this is all the prosecution argued:

With regard to Jackie Williams, we have two people placing her at the scene, Mr. Meade and Mr. Sease, right around the time of the incident, within minutes. In addition, we have--as Mr. Sewall indicated, why would anyone return to the scene? Maybe he hasn't watched enough murder mysteries, or whatever, on TV, but there's that old expression of returning to the scene of the crime. This is not a TV show, but it's also not unheard of that a criminal can return to the scene of the crime. ³

The only other evidence against Jackie Williams was the following: when she took the stand in her own defense, the prosecutor questioned her concerning a confession she allegedly made to a third party, Julie Price:

Q. Do you know Julie Price?

A. No, I don't.

Q. Did you ever meet a Julie Price?

A. Yes, I did.

Q. Did you ever talk to Julie Price about the incident of September 12, 1976?

A. No, I did not.

Q. Didn't you tell Julie Price that you went in and asked for a match and then you even said that you were the one that shot the gas station attendant, didn't you?

A. Did I say that?

Q. Yes.

A. No, I did not.

Jackie Williams' attorney moved for a mistrial "based upon the admissibility of hostile, inflammatory and totally improper evidence." A colloquy ensued between counsel and the court. The prosecutor conceded that he would not call Julie Price as a witness because she was out of state. A short recess was taken in order to permit Jackie Williams' counsel to consult case law on the issue after which he apparently withdrew his motion (or at least did not pursue it). The prosecutor then showed Jackie Williams the transcript of Julie Price's testimony (which he had previously recited) from Williams' prior trial to refresh her memory. Jackie Williams stated that it did not do so.

On appeal, Jackie Williams claims that the actions of her trial counsel in connection with this incident constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. More particularly, she claims that the failure of her counsel to request a limiting instruction as to the use of the Price testimony was "so egregious" as to deprive her of her constitutional right to representation by a reasonably competent attorney. We agree that the use of the prior testimony of Price is a basis for reversal but not for the reason urged by Williams.

The right of...