State v. Williams

• Decision Date: 11 April 2007
• Docket Number: No. A-12 September Term 2006,A-12 September Term 2006
• Citation: 190 N.J. 114,919 A.2d 90
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jayson S. WILLIAMS, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

919 A.2d 90

190 N.J. 114

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

No. A-12 September Term 2006

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued October 30, 2006.

Decided April 11, 2007.

Charles Ouslander, Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for appellant (Jeffrey Patrick Barnes, Hunterdon County Prosecutor, attorney).

Joseph A. Hayden, Jr., Roseland, argued the cause for respondent (Walder, Hayden & Brogan and Blank Rome, attorneys; Mr. Hayden and William R. Martin, a member of the District of Columbia bar, of counsel; Mr. Hayden, Mr. Martin, Shawn M. Wright, Washington, DC, a member of the District of Columbia bar, and Christopher D. Adams, on the briefs).

Catherine A. Foddai, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor, argued the cause for amicus curiae County Prosecutors' Association (John L. Molinelli, Bergen County Prosecutor, President, attorney).

Lawrence S. Lustberg argued the cause for amicus curiae Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, attorneys; Mr. Lustberg and Claudia Van Wyk, Newark, on the brief).

Justice LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court.

In connection with the February 2002 shooting death of Costas "Gus" Christofi, defendant Jayson Williams was charged with aggravated manslaughter, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-4(a)(1) (count one); reckless manslaughter, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-4(b)(1) (count two); possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4(a) (count three); aggravated assault by knowingly pointing a firearm at or in the direction of another, N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b)(4) (count four); hindering apprehension, N.J.S.A. 2C:29-3(b) (count five); tampering with a witness, N.J.S.A. 2C:28-5(a) (count six); tampering with evidence, N.J.S.A. 2C:28-6(1) (count seven); and fabricating physical evidence, N.J.S.A. 2C:28-6(2) (count eight).¹ After a lengthy trial, defendant was convicted on all counts concerning his post-shooting conduct (counts five through eight). The jury acquitted defendant of aggravated manslaughter, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and aggravated assault by knowingly pointing a firearm at or in the direction of another, but could not reach a verdict on reckless manslaughter. The court therefore accepted the jury's verdict on all of the counts except for reckless manslaughter and declared a mistrial as to that count.

Facing retrial on the reckless manslaughter charge, defendant filed a motion to exclude evidence of his conduct immediately after the shooting.² Defendant asserted that his post-shooting conduct is irrelevant to whether he acted recklessly at the time of the shooting, and that the evidence is unduly prejudicial. The State argued that, notwithstanding that the crime involves a reckless mens rea element, the evidence is relevant as demonstrative of a consciousness of guilt that is probative of defendant's state of mind during the shooting incident. The State also disputed that the evidence would cause undue prejudice.

The trial court held the evidence to be inadmissible. Its determination was grounded on the conclusion that post-crime evidence of consciousness of guilt is not relevant to demonstrate recklessness. Moreover, the court found that introduction of the post-shooting-conduct evidence would be unduly prejudicial to defendant in the retrial, notwithstanding the court's contrary conclusion at the first trial when it declined to sever the post-shooting counts from the shooting counts. In an unpublished opinion, the Appellate Division affirmed.³

We granted the State leave to appeal, 187 N.J. 487, 901 A.2d 951 (2006), and now, we reverse.

I.

A.

For context, we recount briefly the circumstances surrounding Christofi's shooting as presented during the first trial. The events transpired during the evening of February 13, 2002, when defendant, his long-time friend Kent Culuko, and several others attended a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game held at Lehigh University. During halftime, defendant invited the Globetrotters players to join him for dinner. Four members of the team accepted — Curly "Boo" Johnson, Leonard Benoit Benjamin, Christopher Morris, and Paul Gaffney. Defendant arranged for the players to be picked up at their hotel and driven to the agreed-upon restaurant by a hired van. The driver of that van was Gus Christofi.

The engagement had an inauspicious start for Christofi. During dinner, while defendant and his guests ate and drank, Christofi, who was waiting in the restaurant, was subjected to loud embarrassing remarks by defendant questioning Christofi's right to be present in the restaurant. Defendant ultimately said he was joking, but only at the end of the humiliating experience.

The group left the restaurant at approximately 1:00 a.m. and traveled to defendant's home. After a tour of defendant's property, the Globetrotters players, Christofi, and others entered the house and eventually congregated in a study attached to defendant's bedroom. At a certain point, defendant, Benjamin, Morris, Gaffney, and Christofi were all in defendant's bedroom. Culuko stood in the entranceway between the study and the bedroom, and Johnson remained in the study. While in his bedroom, defendant retrieved a Browning Citori shotgun that was kept in a gun cabinet. As defendant wielded the shotgun in Christofi's direction, the weapon discharged. The circumstances of the shotgun's discharge will be the focus of the retrial; however, we note at this time that there was testimony that defendant uttered a curse at Christofi moments before the shot was fired. The shotgun blast struck Christofi in the chest, killing him.

Culuko, Benjamin, and Morris witnessed the fatal shot. Gaffney and Johnson did not see the shooting, but they did observe defendant's conduct immediately following the shooting. All five testified for the State during the first trial. Their testimony established that defendant took several steps immediately following the shooting to conceal his involvement in Christofi's death. According to their collective testimony, after Christofi was struck by the shotgun blast defendant dropped to his knees and exclaimed, "Oh my God, what just happened," "Sh*t," and "I f* *ked up my life." As Christofi lay bleeding and gasping for air, Gaffney and Culuko attempted to help him by checking for a pulse. Defendant, on the other hand, tended to his gun, wiping off the weapon with a cloth to remove his fingerprints. Holding the shotgun in one hand, defendant moved it into Christofi's hand, pressing Christofi's fingers and palm on the weapon. Defendant also destroyed evidence of Christofi's blood on himself, including changing his clothes and giving the ones he had been wearing to Culuko to discard. The witnesses testified that defendant instructed them to lie to the police by reporting that Christofi committed suicide. When the police arrived, defendant denied involvement in the shooting.

It is that post-shooting evidence that defendant moved to exclude from the retrial.

B.

As noted, defendant sought to sever the post-shooting counts from the shooting counts in his first trial.⁴ He argued that his cover-up conduct had no relevance to the shooting and did not bear on whether he shot Christofi recklessly — the mens rea required for counts one and two of the indictment. Rather, defendant asserted that the material issue at trial would be whether the shooting was the result of an accident or reckless behavior. As to that, defendant argued, the cover-up constitutes an unrelated and separate occurrence that does not illuminate his state of mind during the earlier events. As for count four (aggravated assault by knowingly pointing a gun at or in the direction of another), defendant conceded that the evidence was not unrelated to the intent element applicable to that offense. Instead, he argued that the prejudicial effect of the evidence outweighed its probative value.

The trial court denied the motion to sever, noting that the indictment included at least one specific intent crime, that judicial economy favored trying the counts together, that the State could choose not to accept defendant's offer to stipulate on his identification as the shooter thereby permitting the introduction of relevant evidence on that issue at trial, and that the post-crime conduct constituted evidence of consciousness of guilt. In ruling on the second severance motion, the court again noted that the post-shooting conduct "would also be admissible at [a] separate trial in demonstrating consciousness of guilt, state of mind."

Accordingly, the court admitted the evidence with a limiting instruction. The trial resulted in defendant's acquittal on the aggravated manslaughter charge (count one) and two other shooting-related charges (counts three and four). One shooting charge was unresolved — the reckless manslaughter charge.

Defendant again sought to bar evidence of the cover-up conduct, this time from the State's re-prosecution of the remaining reckless manslaughter charge. He also sought to bar evidence of two prior gun-discharge incidents in which he had been involved.⁵ The trial court granted the applications and, pursuant to a Rule 404(b) analysis, barred the evidence defendant sought to exclude. The State filed an interlocutory appeal and the Appellate Division affirmed, also employing a Rule 404(b) analysis. Although we did not grant leave to appeal from the panel's affirmance of the exclusion of defendant's prior gun-discharge incidents, we did agree to review the exclusion of defendant's cover-up conduct for which he has now been convicted. The admissibility of that other-crimes evidence is governed by Evidence Rule 404(b), as the trial court and the Appellate Division correctly understood.

II.

Evidence Rule 404(b) provides:

Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the disposition of a person in order to show that such person acted in conformity...