Case Title: State v. MacHado

Citation: 111 N.J. 480, 545 A.2d 174

Docket Number: 

State: new-jersey

Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Date: 1988-08-17T00:00:00Z

Document:
111 N.J. 480 (1988) 545 A.2d 174 STATE OF NEW JERSEY, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. JOSE MACHADO, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT. The Supreme Court of New Jersey. Argued October 26, 1987. Decided August 17, 1988. *481 Arthur S. Safir, Deputy Attorney General, argued the cause for appellant (W. Cary Edwards, Attorney General of New Jersey, attorney). John M. Selden argued the cause for respondent (Willis & Selden, attorneys). PER CURIAM. The narrow issue on this appeal is whether the trial court committed prejudicial error in admitting hearsay statements made by the deceased victim to various witnesses regarding her fear of defendant. In an unreported decision, the Appellate Division, which ruled that the trial court so erred, reversed defendant's murder conviction and remanded the matter to the Law Division for a new trial. We granted certification, 107 N.J. 630 (1987), and now affirm. The Appellate Division summarized the relevant facts: Below the signature, it continued, In holding that the trial court committed prejudicial error in admitting certain hearsay statements of the victim, the Appellate Division reasoned: With the following exceptions, we agree substantially with the Appellate Division's decision. The only point in the State's petition for certification is that the victim's state of mind was in issue and, therefore, that the victim's oral and written hearsay statements were admissible on the State's main case under the state-of-mind exception to the hearsay rule, Evid.R. 63(12).[3] For both factual and legal reasons, we disagree. *487 As to the facts, the State argues that the victim's state of mind was relevant because the defendant placed his relationship with the victim in issue by claiming that the relationship was a good one. The challenged statements, however, were offered by the State and admitted into evidence through various witnesses on the State's direct case. Of necessity, this occurred before the defendant offered any evidence about his relationship with the victim. Hence, the State is simply wrong in trying to justify the admission of the hearsay statements for the asserted reason that the defendant placed that relationship in issue. On the law, the State contends that Downey and Prudden, on which the Appellate Division relied, were wrongly decided, and that hearsay statements made by the deceased victim that reflect the victim's state of mind are admissible to establish defendant's motive and intent. Downey and Prudden held that hearsay declarations of a crime victim's fear of a defendant are not admissible for the purpose of inferring the state of mind of the defendant from those declarations. Id. 206 N.J. Super. at 390-91. As the Appellate Division pointed out, State v. Baldwin is not to the contrary. In Baldwin we declared that hearsay statements made by the defendant were admissible to establish the defendant's state of mind. 47 N.J. at 397. That pronouncement is distinguishable from the holding in Downey that a victim's statements are not admissible to establish the defendant's state of mind. State v. Thornton, 38 N.J. 380 (1962), cert. denied, 374 U.S. 816, 83 S. Ct. 1710, 10 L. Ed. 2d 1039 (1963), is likewise inapposite. In Thornton, the defendant placed the conduct of the victim in issue through his claim of self-defense. There we found admissible testimony by a witness that the *488 victim said she intended to visit defendant not to attack him, but because she thought he was sick. In fairness to the trial court, Downey and Prudden were decided after the trial of the within matter, and, therefore, the court did not have the benefit of those opinions when it ruled on the admissibility of the challenged hearsay testimony. Certain rulings by the trial court are not affected by our opinion. For example, the trial court suggested that some of the decedent's statements to the effect that the defendant physically and verbally abused her could have been admitted under Evidence Rule 63(4)[4] as excited utterances. The Appellate Division disagreed, and the State has not sought review of that part of the Appellate Division's ruling. Hence, we do not address it. Our decision that the decedent's hearsay statements are not admissible under the state-of-mind exception does not preclude the admission of statements made by the defendant on an occasion when the decedent would not ride in the defendant's car. According to Ramon Liriano, who was riding in defendant's car at the time, defendant said, "[t]hat's it. I'm going to kill that bitch." The trial court admitted that statement, citing Rule 55, Other Crimes or Civil Wrong; Evidence Rule 63(7), Admissions by Parties; and Evidence Rule 63(12), Statements of Physical or Mental Condition of Declarant and Related History. The Appellate Division did not discuss the admissibility of that statement, and neither party has raised the issue in this Court. The trial court also admitted the testimony of Kristine Liriano that approximately five weeks before the decedent's death, *489 defendant became enraged at decedent over her plan to have an abortion. Mrs. Liriano testified that while she and her husband were present in the Machado residence with defendant and the decedent, defendant became enraged when the decedent informed him of her planned abortion. Defendant shouted at and pushed the decedent. The State contends that the defendant's statements were admissible under Rule 55 to provide motive for the homicide and to shed light on the relationship between the decedent and the defendant. In admitting the testimony, the trial court stated it was "satisfied that it clearly belongs in the case to establish before the jury the relationship that existed between these two persons some time close to the event at the time she was last seen alive." The Appellate Division did not address that testimony, and we leave in place the trial court's ruling. Finally, we do not foreclose the possibility that some of the victim's statements may be admissible as background to establish the nature of the relationship between the victim and the defendant. Thus, the statements are indirectly relevant as part of the "mosaic" of the event. State v. Baldwin, supra, 47 N.J. at 394. To this limited extent, the victim's state of mind reflects her perception of and is relevant to their relationship. When the victim's declarations do not express fear of the defendant, they might be admissible under an exception to the hearsay rule as a declaration of the victim's state of mind or under some other exception, such as that pertaining to contemporaneous declarations. See Evid.R. 63(4). Declarations of the victim's state of mind, however, should not be used to prove the defendant's motivation or conduct. Furthermore, it may be possible to redact the offensive portions of the victim's unsent letter to the defendant and admit the balance. Brown v. United States, 490 F.2d 758, 778 (D.C. Cir.1973). This, on the theory that the portions that express fear of defendant are prejudicial, but that the balance may shed some light on their relationship. Id. at 766. With *490 respect to any such evidence, the trial court must balance its probative value against the prejudicial effect of admission. The judgment of the Appellate Division is affirmed. For affirmance Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, POLLOCK, O'HERN, GARIBALDI, and STEIN-7. For reversal None. [1] In Downey, the Appellate Division found that the state-of-mind exception contains as a predicate to admission that the statement must reflect a mental condition of the declarant that constitutes a genuine issue in the case or that the statement must be otherwise relevant to explain the declarant's conduct. 206 N.J. Super. at 390. The State's theory in Downey, as here, was that the hostile relationship between the victim and the defendant supplied the defendant's motive for killing the victim. The trial court admitted an undated, signed letter by the victim that stated: To Anyone, If anything happens to me or my kids, you can go get, number one, Diane Downey, number two, Linda Prudden, number three, Ray Prudden. * * * They would be the cause of it. [Signed Robert R. Downey.] P.S. In the event of this letter opened, I want my kids to have everything I have. [Id. at 388.] The Appellate Division ruled that admission of this letter under Rule 63(12) was improper because the defendant's, not the victim's, state of mind was the material issue. Id. at 391. In reaching that result, the Appellate Division noted three well-defined exceptions in which statements of the victim's state of mind are admissible. The three exceptions are where the defendant claims that he or she acted in self-defense, id. at 392; that the victim committed suicide, ibid.; or that the victim's death was accidental, id. at 393. [2] Baldwin involved a state-of-mind declaration made by the defendant subsequent to discovery of the victim's body. Although such statements are generally inadmissible, we found the declaration admissible to show that the defendant had an innocent state of mind after the death but before the body was found. 47 N.J. at 397. Alternatively, we noted that the admission of the testimony was harmless error in light of other evidence. Ibid. Baldwin did not broaden any exception to the hearsay rule for statements made by a victim. [3] Evidence Rule 63(12) provides in pertinent part: A statement is admissible if it was made in good faith and it (a) described the declarant's then existing state of mind, emotion or physical sensation, including statements of intent, plan, motive, design, mental feeling, pain and bodily health, but not including memory or belief, to prove the fact remembered or believed, when such a mental or physical condition is in issue or is relevant to prove or explain acts or conduct of the declarant * * *. [4] Evidence Rule 63(4) provides: A statement is admissible if it was made (a) while the declarant was perceiving an event or condition which the statement narrates, describes or explains, or (b) while the declarant was under the stress of a nervous excitement caused by such perception, in reasonable proximity to the event, and without opportunity to deliberate or fabricate.