State v. Lee Funderburg (074760)

137 A.3d 441, 225 N.J. 66, 2016 WL 2352684, 2016 N.J. LEXIS 479
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedMay 5, 2016
DocketA-29-14
StatusPublished
Cited by225 cases

This text of 137 A.3d 441 (State v. Lee Funderburg (074760)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Lee Funderburg (074760), 137 A.3d 441, 225 N.J. 66, 2016 WL 2352684, 2016 N.J. LEXIS 479 (N.J. 2016).

Opinion

Justice FERNANDEZ-VINA

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This appeal presents the question of whether, in the context of a jury trial for first-degree attempted murder, a trial court erred by failing to charge the jury sua sponte on the lesser-included offense of attempted passion/provocation manslaughter.

The facts in this appeal were established at trial. Defendant Lee Funderburg and Terra Andrews had previously been in a romantic relationship, and they continued to share parenting responsibilities for their two-year-old son even after they stopped dating. Funderburg had a tense relationship with Andrews’s new boyfriend, Leno Parham, and they had previously exchanged angry words. On February 3, 2009, an argument ensued between Funderburg and Parham when Andrews arrived with her boyfriend to pick up the baby from Funderburg’s house. Funderburg removed the keys from the ignition of Andrews’s car. Parham chased Funderburg for ten to fifteen minutes in an effort to reclaim the keys. Several eyewitnesses testified that, at some point before or during the chase, Funderburg brandished a knife. After giving up the chase, Parham leaned against the ear, at which point Funderburg lunged at Parham and punched him several times in the chest. Funderburg’s father and brother, who were nearby, also got involved in the tussle, ostensibly in an effort to separate the men. When Parham stepped away, he realized he had been stabbed and immediately sought medical attention. He sustained life-threatening injuries and underwent major surgery but survived.

*70 Funderburg was arrested later that evening and charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault, as well as related weapons charges. At Funderburg’s trial, the judge instructed the jury on a number of lesser-included offenses to aggravated assault. However, counsel did not request a charge for the lesser-included offense of attempted passion/provocation manslaughter, and the charge was not delivered to the jury.

We now address whether it was error for the trial judge to fail to charge the jury sua sponte on the lesser-included offense of attempted passion/provocation manslaughter. We hold that Fun-derburg was not entitled to a jury instruction on attempted passion/provocation manslaughter because the facts before the trial court did not clearly indicate that the elements of attempted passion/provocation manslaughter were present. In particular, there was insufficient evidence before the jury to demonstrate that a reasonable person in Funderburg’s position would have been adequately provoked by Parham’s behavior.

Our holding today reaffirms that a trial court does “not ... have the obligation on its own meticulously to sift through the entire record in every murder trial to see if some combination of facts and inferences might rationally sustain a manslaughter charge.” State v. Choice, 98 N.J. 295, 299, 486 A.2d 833 (1985). Because the Appellate Division here improperly sifted through the cold appellate record and constructed a hypothetical and factually unsupported scenario in which Funderburg might have conceivably been adequately provoked, we are compelled to reverse and remand with instructions to reinstate Funderburg’s conviction.

I.

Defendant Lee Funderburg had a romantic relationship with Terra Andrews, which resulted in the birth of a son. Shortly thereafter, Funderburg and Andrews stopped dating but continued to share parenting responsibilities. Later, Andrews began dating Leno Parham, the victim. Parham routinely accompanied Andrews to Funderburg’s residence to pick up the baby. Howev *71 er, after Andrews and Parham had been dating for about one year, Parham and Funderburg developed a somewhat tense relationship.

Several weeks before the altercation that resulted in Parham’s stabbing, Parham and Funderburg exchanged hostile words by telephone. Parham informed Funderburg that he was going to “come see him shortly” in person. On the way to Funderburg’s house, Parham spoke to Funderburg’s mother by telephone and informed her that he was planning to fight her son. When Parham arrived at Funderburg’s house (which Funderburg shared with his mother, father, and brother), Funderburg came outside and exchanged angry words with Parham. Funderburg briefly retreated into the house and returned with a knife. The police arrived, and Parham left the scene.

Funderburg and Parham did not interact again until February 3, 2009. In the late afternoon, Parham received a call from Andrews. Andrews asked Parham if he would accompany her to Funderburg’s house to pick up her son, who was then about two years old. Parham agreed, and Andrews picked him up in her car. Both then drove to Funderburg’s house. Most of the trial witnesses testified that it was beginning to snow that afternoon.

Upon arriving, Andrews pulled her car into the driveway and got out to pick up her son while Parham stayed behind in the passenger seat. Funderburg emerged from inside the house but did not bring the child with him. Shortly thereafter, Funder-burg’s brother Jamaal Funderburg 1 came out of the house, holding the baby. Andrews tried to retrieve her son from Jamaal, but was unable to do so. Parham then exited the ear, took the baby from Jamaal, and began to place the baby into a car seat in the backseat.

*72 As Parham buckled the baby into the car seat, Funderburg reached into the driver’s side of the parked ear and took the keys out of the ignition. Andrews and Funderburg began arguing. Funderburg was upset that Andrews brought Parham over every time she came to pick up their son, and Andrews was upset that she was being prevented from leaving. Parham intervened on Andrews’s behalf and began to chase Funderburg around the car in an attempt to recover the car keys. The snow on the ground made pursuit more difficult. Funderburg evaded Parham for about ten to fifteen minutes. Andrews and Jamaal both stood nearby but did not participate in the chase.

Several eyewitnesses — including Andrews, Parham, and Jamaal — testified that Funderburg brandished a knife. However, Parham gave conflicting statements as to when the knife appeared. Parham told police several days after the incident that Funderburg brandished the knife after Parham began chasing him to obtain the car keys. At trial, Parham indicated that Funder-burg brandished the knife before the chase began.

Parham eventually stopped chasing Funderburg and knocked on Funderburg’s front door, hoping to persuade Funderburg’s mother to entreat Funderburg to return the car keys. Finding no one home, Parham walked into the street and asked Funderburg and Jamaal if they wanted to fight; they did not respond. Parham walked back to the car and leaned against it, and Funderburg and Jamaal both approached him. Parham and Funderburg continued to argue verbally for several minutes and the confrontation continued to escalate. Parham testified that Funderburg held the knife in his hand, but he did not believe Funderburg would use it. Meanwhile, Funderburg’s parents arrived at home by car and parked in front of their house. Funderburg’s father Leroy approached the men as they stood arguing next to Andrews’s car.

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Bluebook (online)
137 A.3d 441, 225 N.J. 66, 2016 WL 2352684, 2016 N.J. LEXIS 479, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lee-funderburg-074760-nj-2016.