STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. LAMAR RANDLEMAN (14-09-0787, UNION COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)

CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedDecember 30, 2021
DocketA-5378-16
StatusUnpublished

This text of STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. LAMAR RANDLEMAN (14-09-0787, UNION COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. LAMAR RANDLEMAN (14-09-0787, UNION COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. LAMAR RANDLEMAN (14-09-0787, UNION COUNTY AND STATEWIDE), (N.J. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. A-5378-16

STATE OF NEW JERSEY,

Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.

LAMAR RANDLEMAN, a/k/a LAMAR J. RANDELMAN,

Defendant-Appellant. ___________________________

Argued October 13, 2020 – Decided December 30, 2021

Before Judges Hoffman, Suter and Smith.

On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Union County, Indictment. No. 14-09-0787.

Adam W. Toraya argued the cause for appellant.

Milton S. Leibowitz, Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for respondent (William A. Daniel, Union County Prosecutor, attorney; Milton S. Leibowitz, on the brief).

Appellant filed a pro se supplemental brief.

The opinion of the court was delivered by SMITH, J.A.D.

After a jury trial, defendant Lamar Randleman was convicted of first-

degree carjacking and third-degree theft. He was sentenced to twenty-five years

imprisonment. On appeal, defendant contends trial judge erred by: excluding

certain evidence prior to trial; rejecting defendant's recommended supplemental

voir dire question on racial bias; improperly giving a flight instruction to the

jury; and imposing an excessive sentence. We affirm for the reasons set forth

below.

I.

A.

On March 31, 2014, Patricia Fitzpatrick returned home after grocery

shopping at about 1:00 p.m. She took groceries out of her trunk and put them

on the kitchen counter, then put a collar on her dog and went back outside. Once

outside, Ms. Fitzpatrick saw defendant standing near the back of her car. He

closed the trunk and approached Ms. Fitzpatrick. Defendant took her car keys,

kicked the dog, and pushed her into the shrubbery. After taking the keys,

defendant got in the car and sped away. Ms. Fitzpatrick could not identify the

person who stole her car with any certainty.

A-5378-16 2 Ms. Fitzpatrick's neighbor, David Reich, heard screaming and the dog

barking, causing him to look out the window. After seeing the carjacking, he

got dressed and told his wife to call 9-1-1. He ran outside and asked Ms.

Fitzpatrick which car was taken, and which way the carjacker went. As a result,

Mr. Reich got in his car and headed towards Route 22, looking for Ms.

Fitzpatrick's car. Eventually he saw a person who looked like defendant driving

Ms. Fitzpatrick's car at a high rate of speed, and he followed it onto Route 22.

The carjacker exited Route 22 and pulled into a store parking lot. While in the

car, Mr. Reich called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher that he was following Ms.

Fitzpatrick's car.

Mr. Reich followed defendant into a store parking lot and saw defendant

park. Mr. Reich also pulled into the parking lot and parked his car within three

parking stalls of where defendant had parked the stolen car. Mr. Reich saw

defendant exit the car, toss something over a fence that separated the parking lot

from a neighboring gas station, and then walk between two cars towards the gas

station. Mr. Reich then saw Officer Michael Pasquale pull into the same lot in

his patrol car. He heard Officer Pasquale command defendant to stop and then

watched defendant run between him and the officer. Mr. Reich saw Officer

A-5378-16 3 Pasquale attempt to dive and tackle defendant, miss, and then begin to pursue

defendant on foot.

Officer Pasquale testified that he observed the stolen car just before it

reached the parking lot, and he entered the parking lot through a different

entrance. Officer Pasquale confronted defendant and ordered him to the ground,

but defendant disregarded the order and ran. Defendant ran along the fence until

he was able to slip through it onto the gas station property. Officer Pasquale

pursued him on foot, knocking a section of fence down and chasing defendant

into the gas station. Officer Pasquale testified on direct that he "never" lost sight

of defendant, but he admitted on cross-examination he did not see defendant

park and exit the stolen vehicle.

While Officer Pasquale chased defendant into the gas station, a dark

Chevy Malibu sedan pulled into the gas station, and the passenger side door

swung open. Defendant got into the car, which subsequently drove away at a

high rate of speed. Officer Pasquale fired four shots from his service weapon

into the Malibu. He later claimed to investigators that he feared for his life and

that he believed that the driver of the Malibu was going to run him over.

Another officer, Corporal Thomas Norton, pursued the car in his marked

vehicle. The car spun out of control making a turn and crashed into a curb,

A-5378-16 4 where it remained disabled. Officer Norton blocked the driver-side door of the

car with his patrol unit to prevent the driver from fleeing. He ordered the driver

to turn off the car, and the occupants surrendered.

B.

On September 12, 2014, defendant was indicted for first-degree

carjacking, N.J.S.A. 2C:15-2(a)(1), third-degree theft, N.J.S.A. 2C:20-3(a), as

well as charge of fourth-degree resisting arrest, N.J.S.A. 2C:29-2(a)(2).

Prior to trial, the State and defendant each filed motions. The State sought

to preclude evidence that Officer Pasquale fired four shots into the Malibu,

striking the car in the passenger side door. Defendant moved to compel

discovery of Officer Pasquale's personnel file, which contained information

pertinent to his suspension from the police force at the time of trial.

The trial court heard argument on both motions. The State argued under

N.J.R.E. 403 that the probative value of the testimony about the shooting and

the physical evidence depicting where the bullets struck defendant's car was

outweighed by the prejudice caused by introducing such evidence to the jury.

The State argued the principal case was the carjacking, therefore evidence about

shots fired at the gas station would be misleading and confusing to the jur y.

A-5378-16 5 The judge initially disagreed, finding the evidence relevant and probative

to the defense case, remarking, "[s]o . . . Mr. Randleman's defense is[,] 'I didn't

have the intent to flee. I was being shot at.'" When the State argued that the

flight issue was not relevant to the N.J.R.E. 403 analysis, the court disagreed

further. The judge stated that the shooting evidence went "to the heart of . . .

defendant's due process rights to defend himself," and expressly stated that the

evidence of Officer Pasquale unholstering his weapon and firing four shots at

the Chevy Malibu was not inflammatory or confusing to the jury in light of the

pending resisting arrest charge against defendant. The judge then stressed that

his findings at that point in the argument were predicated upon the pending

resisting arrest charge against defendant. The trial court expressly linked the

admissibility of the shooting evidence to the flight element in the resisting arrest

charge. 1

The State elected to dismiss the resisting arrest charge. Once the State

dismissed the charge, the judge immediately reversed course and excluded the

shooting evidence.

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STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. LAMAR RANDLEMAN (14-09-0787, UNION COUNTY AND STATEWIDE), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-new-jersey-vs-lamar-randleman-14-09-0787-union-county-and-njsuperctappdiv-2021.