State v. Wilson

637 A.2d 1237, 135 N.J. 4, 1994 N.J. LEXIS 175
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedFebruary 28, 1994
StatusPublished
Cited by76 cases

This text of 637 A.2d 1237 (State v. Wilson) 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. Wilson, 637 A.2d 1237, 135 N.J. 4, 1994 N.J. LEXIS 175 (N.J. 1994).

Opinions

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

GARIBALDI, J.

The narrow issue presented in this appeal is the admissibility of a videotape presentation of the scene of a crime. Filmed three days after the crime, the videotape depicts the physical location of the witnesses and the murder victim at the time of the crime. The participants in the video do not move or speak. The video, rather than constituting a reenactment of the events, simply gives a spacial overview of the premises and the physical location of the witnesses.

I

This case involves an attempted robbery and a murder at a meat market in Neptune. On February 26,1988, at approximately 4:00 p.m., the market’s two stock clerks, Claude Collins and Moses Williams, were loading meat into a truck outside the market when they were informed by defendant, Joseph Wilson, and his accomplice, Leonard M. Chisum, not to go back into the store because “something was about to happen.” Defendant then entered the Fabulous Meat Center with a ski mask pulled down over his face, leaving only his eyes and mouth exposed. The cashier on duty, Paula Crawford, noticed Wilson dancing and skipping around the store wearing a ski mask, but she was not alarmed because she mistook Wilson for a child due to his slight build. She testified that many customers, especially children, wore ski masks into the store in the cold weather.

Wilson then silently stepped out from behind a toy display near Crawford’s register, pointing a handgun. He walked over to a second register where the two owners of the store, Brian Kennedy and Peter Szoke, were bagging personal merchandise, and he pointed the gun at Kennedy’s face. Assuming the gun to be a toy [8]*8like the toy guns he sold in the store, Kennedy leaned back, pushed the gun away from his face, and told Wilson to “get that thing out of here.”

Wilson then walked over to Szoke and placed the gun against Szoke’s head. Szoke, apparently also assuming the gun to be a toy, put his arm up to push the gun away and told Wilson to “get out of here.” Wilson then fired one shot, which struck Szoke in the left temple. Wilson fled the scene, and Szoke died a few days later.

Defendant was arrested and entered a plea of not guilty. The State filed a Notice of Aggravating Factors. A jury convicted Wilson of capital murder, felony murder, armed robbery, conspiracy, aggravated assault, possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose, and possession of a handgun without a permit. At a penalty trial the jury determined that the death penalty was not the appropriate punishment for defendant. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a mandatory minimum parole ineligibility of thirty years on the murder count, as well as consecutive sentences on two other counts totalling six-and-one-half years with a three-and-one-quarter-year parole ineligibility.

The Appellate Division affirmed defendant’s convictions but remanded for resentencing. After a resentencing hearing, the Appellate Division affirmed the trial court’s reimposition of the same sentence.

We granted Wilson’s petition for certification, 134 N.J. 475, 634 A.2d 522 (1993), “limited to the issue regarding the videotaped reconstruction of the robbery and shooting.”

II

The prosecution introduced the videotape at trial over defendant’s objection. The parties do not dispute that Wilson entered the store to commit a robbery, pointed the gun at the victim, and shot Szoke. Defendant claims, however, that the shooting was unintentional. The key issue, therefore, at trial was whether [9]*9Wilson had committed the killing purposefully and knowingly, or whether he had accidentally shot Szoke in the head. Defendant told the police that “the man in the store grabbed his arm and he shot the man.” Defendant admitted that his statement to the police was not truthful insofar as it stated that the victim had pushed him against the wall. He insisted, however, that Szoke had “yanked him back and forth.”

Both Crawford and Kennedy testified that defendant had put the gun to the back of Szoke’s head and that Szoke had brushed defendant’s arm away, causing defendant to take a step back. Defendant then stepped forward, put the gun back up to Szoke’s head, and fired. He then fled the store.

In support of that version of the shooting, the State presented the testimony of the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Szoke and the testimony of a weapons expert. The examiner concluded from the soot markings around the wound that the shot that had killed Szoke had been fired about six inches away from his head. The weapons expert testified that because of the age and condition of the murder weapon, a deliberate action to pull the trigger had been required to fire the gun.

The Videotape

The first scene in the videotape is the view from outside the entrance to the Fabulous Meat Center. The video then cuts to a second scene of the view from inside the store entrance. The third scene, the relevant scene, is again the view on approaching and entering the store through the front door. The video shows the interior of the store, including the merchandise on the shelves, and then focuses on the checkout area consisting of two sets of cash registers and counters.

The camera then enters the store and turns toward the checkout area. Two women and one man are seen standing in the locations where the victim, Crawford and Kennedy were located at the time of the crime. Paula Crawford stands in her position as cashier at the first cash register. An unidentified woman stands behind and to the right of Crawford in the position where Kenne[10]*10dy, the co-owner, was situated. Both Crawford and the unidentified woman stare straight toward the camera with blank expressions.

Detective Green, in plainclothes, stands next to the unidentified woman and is pivoted at an angle in front of the conveyor belt of the second cash register. His position is that of the victim, Szoke. The videotape then shows the location of the cash registers and their proximity to the front door. It also shows Green’s position relative to the front door and to both cash registers.

The camera then travels from the front door to the toy display, and then past Crawford at the first register and past the unidentified woman standing in Kennedy’s position. The videotape then passes Detective Green standing in Szoke’s position. Neither the unidentified woman nor Detective Green moves at all, but Crawford turns slightly toward the camera while it traces Wilson’s route towards the cash registers from behind the toy display.

The video is filmed as if Wilson himself were carrying the videotape camera as he traveled through the store on the day of the crime, except that no actor portrays Wilson and no one reenacts any of the movements of the witnesses or the interaction between the witnesses and Wilson. No gun is ever shown, nor is any indication of a shooting. The entire third scene lasts less than a minute.

The camera finally shows the route taken by Wilson to flee the scene and the subsequent route taken by the police to apprehend him.

Introduction of the Videotape at Trial

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
637 A.2d 1237, 135 N.J. 4, 1994 N.J. LEXIS 175, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wilson-nj-1994.