United States of America Ex Rel. Horace Laws v. Howard D. Yeager, Principal Keeper of the New Jersey State Prison at Trenton, New Jersey

448 F.2d 74
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedAugust 30, 1971
Docket18162
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 448 F.2d 74 (United States of America Ex Rel. Horace Laws v. Howard D. Yeager, Principal Keeper of the New Jersey State Prison at Trenton, New Jersey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States of America Ex Rel. Horace Laws v. Howard D. Yeager, Principal Keeper of the New Jersey State Prison at Trenton, New Jersey, 448 F.2d 74 (3d Cir. 1971).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

BIGGS, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from the denial by the United States District Court of Laws’ petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Laws was indicted, along with others, for conspiring to commit armed robbery in violation of N.J.S.A. 2A :98-l and 2A:98-2 and to commit murder in violation of N.J.S.A. 2A:113-1 and 2A:113-2. He was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2A: 113-4. He was also convicted on the conspiracy charge but sentence was suspended. On appeal, the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the convictions but found error in the imposition of the death sentence. State v. Laws, 50 N.J. 159, 233 A.2d 633 (1967). On reargument the New Jersey Supreme Court modified the sentence to life imprisonment. State v. Laws, 51 N.J. 494, 242 A.2d 333 (1968). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, 393 U.S. 971, 89 S.Ct. 408, 21 L.Ed.2d 384 (1968).

The facts are set forth accurately in the first opinion of the New Jersey Supreme Court as follows:

“During the early morning hours of April 26, 1965 there was an armed robbery at the Public Service Coordinated Transport’s terminal garage in Oradell. Christopher Jaeger, a Public Service bus driver, was killed by pellets from a shotgun fired by one of the robbers. The State’s evidence as to the robbery was quite detailed but need only be summarized here. At about 3 A.M. three men entered the Oradell terminal. They wore ski masks which covered their heads and had openings for their eyes and mouths. They also wore flesh colored surgeons’ gloves. Two of the men were short and the third was tall. The short men carried revolvers and the tall man carried a shotgun. The tall man did most of the limited amount of talking. He spoke with a southern drawl and, while there had been earlier variations in their descriptions, the witnesses at the trial generally agreed that he was brown or dark complexioned. The short men were invariably described as Negroes.
“The robbers herded several of the Public Service employees into the cashier’s office. There they handcuffed Ellis, a maintenance man, Elliott and Grie- *77 ner, bus drivers, and Jacobus, a bus driver who had been temporarily assigned by Public Service to duties as cashier and depot master. The employees were forced by the robbers to lie side by side on the floor of the cashier’s office and their mouths and eyes were covered with white adhesive tape. The robbers then proceeded to empty the safe in the cashier’s office. The safe had been open and had contained between 20 and 25 bags of money. After the robbers left the cashier’s office, the employees heard a loud bang and then heard an automobile starting up and driving off. It sounded to them like a ‘souped-up car or a hot rod.’
“The handcuffed employees managed to push a button which sounded an alarm in other portions of the terminal garage. In response, Quinones, a Public Service mechanic, ran in. He announced that Jaeger had been shot and asked that the police and an ambulance be called. In due time the police arrived and found Jaeger’s body lying in the garage. A doctor connected with the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s office also arrived and ordered the body removed. He performed an autopsy which disclosed that shotgun pellets and wadding had entered the brain. Although the exact amount taken by the robbers was not known at the time of the event, later investigation established that they had stolen $20,512.-60. Of that amount approximately $10,-000 was in single dollar bills, $2,000 in bills of higher denominations, and the rest in coins except for about $1,000 in checks.
“During the early evening hours of April 26th, one Dennis Kingsley was at the Spring Valley, New York, station house talking to Chief of Police Kraniac. Dennis was asked about a burglary at Gattuso’s Service Station in Spring Valley and Dennis gave some indication that it had been perpetrated by his older brother Joseph Kingsley and one Peter Kostas. Dennis first inquired whether there had been a big robbery in Bergen County, New Jersey, and later told Chief Kraniac that he knew about its planning. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s office was called and shortly thereafter Dennis accompanied two representatives of the prosecutor’s office to the Oradell police station. He made statements which were followed in New York by the issuance of search warrants and the search of several apartments including those of Laws and Washington. Thereafter the Bergen County Grand Jury returned separate murder indictments against Laws, Washington, Austin Baker, Joseph Kingsley, John Doe, and Richard Roe. A conspiracy indictment was returned against all of the aforementioned except Joseph Kingsley. Later the indictments setting forth the name of John Doe were amended to substitute the name of Julian Smalls in its stead.
“At the trial, Dennis testified to the following effect: His brother had worked at the Oradell terminal and had told him that it would be ‘an easy place to knock off.’ About mid-April 1965 he and his brother were at the apartment of the defendant Laws who was known generally as ‘Hap.’ The defendant Washington was also there along with some other men. Dennis saw his brother and Hap leave the living room to talk privately. On Sunday, April 18th, Dennis went to Laws’ apartment looking for his brother. Laws told him that his brother had been arrested for ‘a safe job in Spring Valley.’ While Dennis was in the Laws’ apartment, Washington and two other men came in. One of these men was Smalls. Smalls complained about his gun and Dennis offered to get a gun from his brother’s hotel room. Laws then gave Washington the keys to his Plymouth automobile. Dennis, along with Washington and Smalls, went to the hotel but could not find the gun. They returned to the Laws’ apartment and then Washington left for a few minutes and came back with an old single-barreled shotgun. Washington had five or six red and green shotgun shells.
“Laws showed Washington how to load the shotgun, then went into the bedroom and brought out a green duffel bag. He opened the bag and took out three ski *78 masks. Dennis described one as predominantly red with blue stitching. Dennis also saw Laws take out three pairs of flesh-colored surgeons’ gloves. At that point Laws left the apartment saying that he was going to get Austin Baker’s car. Laws returned to the apartment shortly and, about two in the morning of April 19th, Washington, Smalls and an unnamed person described by Dennis as a truck driver, left with Laws wishing them luck. At about 3:30 A.M., the telephone in Laws’ apartment rang and Dennis heard Laws say that he was glad it happened on the way there and not on the way back. At about 4:30 A.M. the three men returned telling Laws that their car had gone dead.
“There was independent testimony corroborating the breakdown of the car and the telephone call to Laws’ apartment. Mr. Felice, an employee of Comfort Cab, Inc., testified that about 3 A.M. on the 19th, three Negroes (Washington, Smalls and the truck driver were Negroes) came to his office on Kinderkamack Road in River Edge to get help because their car had broken down.

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Bluebook (online)
448 F.2d 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-ex-rel-horace-laws-v-howard-d-yeager-principal-ca3-1971.