STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. MAURICE TURNER(04-02-0122, MERCER COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)(CONSOLIDATED)

CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedSeptember 7, 2017
DocketA-1794-13T2/A-5857-13T2
StatusUnpublished

This text of STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. MAURICE TURNER(04-02-0122, MERCER COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)(CONSOLIDATED) (STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. MAURICE TURNER(04-02-0122, MERCER COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)(CONSOLIDATED)) 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.

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STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. MAURICE TURNER(04-02-0122, MERCER COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)(CONSOLIDATED), (N.J. Ct. App. 2017).

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NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court."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-1794-13T2 A-5857-13T2

STATE OF NEW JERSEY,

Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.

MAURICE TURNER,

Defendant-Appellant. _________________________________________________

Submitted January 10, 2017 – Decided September 7, 2017

Before Judges Espinosa and Guadagno.

On appeal from Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Mercer County, Indictment No. 04-02-0122.

Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney for appellant in A-1794-13 (Andrew J. Shaw, Designated Counsel, on the brief).

Maurice Turner, appellant pro se in A-5857- 13.

Angelo J. Onofri, Mercer County Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Scott J. Gershman, Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief in A-1794-13; Laura Sunyak, Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief in A-5857-13). PER CURIAM

Tried to a jury, defendant Maurice Turner was convicted of

first-degree murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3(a)(1) (count one); first-

degree felony murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3(a)(3) (count two); and

first-degree robbery, N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1 (count four). The

sentencing judge merged count two with count one and imposed a

life sentence on count one, subject to the eighty-five percent

parole ineligibility term required by the No Early Release Act

(NERA), N.J.S.A. 2C:43-7.2, and a concurrent twenty-year

sentence on count four.

On appeal, defendant claimed a detective's testimony

included inadmissible hearsay; the prosecutor's summation

improperly relied on facts not in evidence and usurped the

function of the jury; the jury charge on theft incorporated

facts not in evidence; the written outline of the elements of

the offenses, which was distributed to the jury, arranged the

crimes in a sequence that emphasized the most serious charges,

thereby increasing the likelihood of conviction; trial counsel

provided ineffective assistance by failing to move for a new

trial; and the sentence imposed was excessive, especially when

compared to the sentence imposed on a co-defendant who was

convicted of felony murder and robbery. We rejected these

arguments and affirmed. State v. Turner, No. A-1227-07 (App.

2 A-1794-13T2 Div. Oct. 13, 2009) (slip op. at 2). Defendant's petition for

certification was denied. 201 N.J. 446 (2010).

In October 2010, defendant filed a pro se petition for

post-conviction relief (PCR) alleging a laundry list of claims

of ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel. PCR

counsel was assigned and sought production of documents relating

to a detective who testified at trial claiming the documents

could have been used at trial to impeach the detective. The

motion was denied after oral argument.

Before his first PCR petition was decided, defendant

submitted a pro se supplemental letter brief raising additional

claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel including,

failure to move to suppress data retrieved from cell phones, and

failure to move to suppress a black shirt which contained

defendant's DNA.

On August 13, 2013, the PCR judge issued an order declining

to consider defendant's pro se supplemental brief and denying

relief without a hearing on the remaining claims. Defendant

filed a notice of appeal on December 12, 2013, which we accepted

as filed within time.

While his appeal was pending, defendant filed a second PCR

petition attempting to raise the claims he had advanced in his

rejected pro se supplemental brief. On July 9, 2014, a

3 A-1794-13T2 different PCR judge filed an order accompanied by a decision

denying defendant's second petition as procedurally barred.

Defendant now appeals from that order and the order of August

13, 2013.

As to the first appeal (A-1794-13), defendant raises the

following arguments:

POINT I

THE PCR COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO ISSUE FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AS TO ALL OF THE DEFENDANT'S CLAIMS.

POINT II

THE PCR COURT ERRED IN DENYING AN EVIDENTIARY HEARING BECAUSE THE DEFENDANT HAD ESTABLISHED A REASONABLE LIKELIHOOD THAT HIS CLAIMS OF INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF TRIAL AND APPELLANT COUNSEL WOULD ULTIMATELY SUCCEED ON THE MERITS.

A. TRIAL COUNSEL'S FAILURE TO CORRECTLY ADVISE THE DEFENDANT AS TO HIS SENTENCING EXPOSURE.

B. TRIAL COUNSEL'S FAILURE TO REQUEST A CLAWANS[1] CHARGE AND TO MOVE TO DISQUALIFY THE PROSECUTOR FOR TESTIFYING AS A WITNESS.

C. TRIAL COUNSEL'S FAILURE TO ATTACK THE CREDIBILITY OF DETECTIVE EDGAR RIOS.

D. TRIAL COUNSEL'S FAILURE TO OBJECT TO THE RACIAL COMPOSITION OF THE JURY.

1 State v. Clawans, 38 N.J. 162 (1962).

4 A-1794-13T2 E. TRIAL COUNSEL'S CUMULATIVE ERRORS.

POINT III

THE PCR COURT ERRED IN DENYING THE DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO COMPEL THE PRODUCTION OF RECORDS.

As to the second appeal (A-5857-13), defendant raises the

following points:

THE DEFENDANT'S RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS OF LAW AS GUARANTEED BY THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION AND ART. I PART 1 OF THE NEW JERSEY CONSTITUTION WAS VIOLATED BY THE PCR COURT'S REFUSAL TO HOLD A POST- CONVICTION RELIEF EVIDENTIARY HEARING TO ADJUDICATE THE DEFENDANT'S CLAIM THAT HE WAS DENIED EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL.

A. DEFENDANT WAS DENIED THE EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF TRIAL COUNSEL WHEN HIS LAWYER FAILED TO FILE A CLEARLY MERITORIOUS MOTION TO SUPPRESS THE CELL PHONES WHICH WERE ILLEGALLY SEIZED WITHOUT A SEARCH WARRANT AND CALL DETAIL RECORDS AS BEING THE FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE.

B. DEFENDANT WAS DENIED THE EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF TRIAL COUNSEL WHEN HIS LAWYER FAILED TO FILE A CLEARLY MERITORIOUS MOTION TO SUPPRESS THE BLACK STATE PROPERTY SHIRT WHICH WAS ILLEGALLY SEIZED WITHOUT A SEARCH WARRANT AND DNA MATCH AS BEING THE FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE.

5 A-1794-13T2 C. TRIAL COUNSEL RENDERED INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL BY FAILING TO FILE A MOTION FOR DOUBLE JEOPARDY TO BAR RE-TRIAL ON COUNTS I, II, AND IV OF THE INDICTMENT.

D. APPELLANT['S] COUNSEL RENDERED INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL BY FAILING TO ORDER MARCH 6, 2006 TRIAL TRANSCRIPTS AND RAISE ON DIRECT APPEAL TRIAL COUNSEL FAILED TO FILE A MOTION FOR DOUBLE JEOPARDY TO BAR RE-TRIAL ON COUNTS I, II, AND IV OF THE INDICTMENT.

THE PROCEDURAL BAR TO RELIEF UNDER RULE 3:22- 4 SHOULD NOT APPLY TO APPELLANT'S CLAIMS UNDER POINTS C AND D.

We assume familiarity with the facts as related in our 2009

opinion and do not repeat them here.

First PCR Petition

Defendant first argues that the PCR judge failed to issue

findings of fact and conclusions of law. The judge noted that

the twenty-five "miscellaneous arguments" raised in the initial

petition lacked merit or were already addressed in our 2009

opinion. The judge also observed that defendant "presents bare

allegations without providing specific details on how, when,

why, and where counsel made errors or omissions." The judge

declined to consider the new claims raised in defendant's pro se

6 A-1794-13T2 supplemental brief noting defendant had ample opportunity to

raise the claims in his PCR petition.

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STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. MAURICE TURNER(04-02-0122, MERCER COUNTY AND STATEWIDE)(CONSOLIDATED), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-new-jersey-vs-maurice-turner04-02-0122-mercer-county-and-njsuperctappdiv-2017.