State v. Singleton

386 A.2d 880, 158 N.J. Super. 517
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedApril 19, 1978
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 386 A.2d 880 (State v. Singleton) 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 v. Singleton, 386 A.2d 880, 158 N.J. Super. 517 (N.J. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

158 N.J. Super. 517 (1978)
386 A.2d 880

STATE OF NEW JERSEY, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,
v.
ROBERT SINGLETON, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Submitted September 12, 1977.
Decided April 19, 1978.

*520 Before Judges CONFORD, MICHELS and PRESSLER.

Mr. Stanley C. Van Ness, Public Defender, attorney for appellant (Mr. Philip A. Kahn, of counsel and on the brief).

Mr. William F. Hyland, Attorney General of New Jersey, attorney for respondent (Mr. Benjamin D. Leibowitz, Deputy Attorney General, of counsel and on the brief).

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

Defendant Robert Singleton was convicted by a jury of the murder of Willie Williams in the second degree while armed. He was sentenced to State Prison for 18 to 20 years for second degree murder and to a concurrent term of 3 to 5 years for the armed feature. Both sentences were to be served consecutively to a sentence defendant was then serving for a violation of parole. He appeals.

According to the State's proofs, defendant killed Williams by shooting him with a .38-caliber handgun following an altercation between Williams and defendant's brother, Charles Singleton. On January 25, 1975, at about 3 P.M., Edith Williams, the slightly retarded 14-year-old daughter of the murder victim Williams, was involved in a fight with Charles Singleton while she was washing clothes in the neighborhood laundromat. The local police were called and broke up the fight, instructing Edith to go home. Edith was crying when she arrived home and told her mother and father what had happened. Her father left the house with her and three of *521 his other children to look for Charles, whom he eventually found in a delicatessen. Williams entered the delicatessen and became involved in a fight with Charles while the children remained outside. During the course of the fight Williams took a knife from his pocket and menaced Charles with it. As a result Charles ran into the backroom of the store. The owner immediately demanded that Williams leave and he complied. Williams returned to his children. Then Gregory Singleton, another brother of defendant, hit him on the head with a bat, threw the bat at him and ran off. Williams and his children started to return to their home, when defendant accosted them. According to Edith, defendant told Williams "you ain't going to live for long." Thereupon defendant took a handgun out of his jacket and shot Williams four times in front of his children. Dr. Randolph A. London, the Assistant Hudson County Medical Examiner, who performed the autopsy, testified that Williams was shot in the abdomen, the chest, the arm and back. The bullet which entered his chest perforated his heart, causing almost immediate death.

Defendant does not contend on this appeal that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. Rather, he seeks a reversal of his convictions and a remand for a new trial on the grounds hereinafter discussed. We have addressed all of defendant's contentions and find them to be without merit.

I

There is no merit in defendant's claim that the trial judge erred in ordering the New Jersey Parole Board to relinquish the transcripts of his parole revocation hearing. While defendant was on parole, he was arrested and charged with the Williams murder. A parole revocation hearing involving the murder charge against him was held. At that hearing defendant, his lawyer and his sister testified. Prior to the trial of the murder indictment the State served subpoenas duces tecum upon the chairman and the executive director of the Parole Board directing them to produce the *522 transcripts or records of the parole revocation hearing. The Parole Board immediately moved to quash the subpoenas on the ground that the requested transcripts and records were privileged from discovery as official information pursuant to Evid. R. 34 (N.J.S.A. 2A:84A-27). The Parole Board argued that, even though the transcript had been made available to defendant's attorney, it was confidential under N.J.S.A. 30:4-123.31 and N.J.A.C. 10:70-12.2, and its disclosure would be harmful to the public interest. The trial judge disagreed and ordered the production of the transcripts. The transcripts were produced for the trial and were used by the State to cross-examine defendant's sister.

We are entirely satisfied that the trial judge properly ordered the production of the transcripts of the parole revocation hearing. The order of the Law Division denying the motion to quash the subpoenas duces tecum is affirmed substantially for the reasons expressed by Judge Walsh in his written opinion reported at 137 N.J. Super. 436 (Law Div. 1975).

II

We also find no merit in defendant's claim that the trial judge mistakenly exercised his discretion by calling Edward Horne, an eyewitness to the shooting, as the court's own witness. Horne originally gave a statement to the police in which he stated that he was an eyewitness to the shooting by defendant and that he later learned the murder weapon was in defendant's sister's apartment. Thereafter he was interviewed by defendant's investigator, Robert Ellis, Jr. Horne told Ellis that his statement to the police was true except he never mentioned the location of the murder weapon. However, when Horne testified at the suppression hearing at the behest of defendant, he recanted his prior statement to the police. He denied seeing the shooting or the weapon. He maintained that he never told the police anything about the shooting or the gun used. When confronted with his signed statement, he either denied giving the police most of the information contained therein or *523 could not remember what happened. He also denied telling the State's investigator that he was threatened and warned not to speak about the incident. When Horne appeared at the trial as a court witness, he identified defendant as Williams' murderer and confirmed the truthfulness of his prior police statement to this effect.

We are entirely satisfied that under the circumstances presented the trial judge properly exercised his discretionary powers by calling Horne as a court witness, thereby enabling the State, which was surprised by the recantation, and defendant to cross-examine the witness. See McCormick, Evidence (2 ed. 1972), § 8 at 12-14. See also, State v. Andreano, 117 N.J. Super. 498, 502 (App. Div. 1971).

While there may be some technical question as to the propriety of permitting the State to call defendant's investigator Ellis as its witness to testify to his conversation with Horne concerning Horne's prior statement to the police (see State v. Robinson, 139 N.J. Super. 58, 62 (App. Div. 1976)), the admission of such testimony was harmless, particularly in view of the fact that Horne's statement was marked in evidence at the trial and utilized by the State to cross examine him.

Beyond this, in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt neither "error" alleged by defendant reached dimensions "sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt as to whether the error led the jury to a result it otherwise might not have reached." State v. Macon, 57 N.J. 325, 336 (1971). See also, State v. Bankston, 63 N.J. 263, 273 (1973).

III

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Bluebook (online)
386 A.2d 880, 158 N.J. Super. 517, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-singleton-njsuperctappdiv-1978.