SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-2051-20

STATE OF NEW JERSEY, 

Plaintiff-Respondent, 

v. 

RALPH P. JAMISON, 

Defendant-Appellant. 

_______________________

Submitted September 29, 2022 – Decided October 12, 2022

Before Judges Vernoia and Natali. 

On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law 

Division, Cumberland County, Indictment No. 15-05-

0584. 

Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney for 

appellant (Joseph Anthony Manzo, Designated 

Counsel, on the brief). 

Jennifer Webb-McRae, Cumberland County 

Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Kaila L. Diodati, 

Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief). 

PER CURIAM 

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the 

internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.
2

A-2051-20

Defendant Ralph P. Jamison appeals from an order denying his postconviction relief (PCR) petition without an evidentiary hearing. He claims the 

court erred by finding he did not establish a prima facie claim his plea counsel 

was ineffective by failing to argue his relative youth was a mitigating factor that 

should have been considered a sentencing. He also argues the court erred by 

failing to conduct an evidentiary hearing on his PCR petition. Finding 

defendant's arguments lack merit, we affirm.

I.

A grand jury charged defendant with murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3(a)(1);

third-degree aggravated assault, N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b)(2); fourth-degree 

aggravated assault, N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b)(4); second-degree possession of a 

weapon for an unlawful purpose, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4(a); and second-degree 

unlawful possession of a weapon, N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5(b). Defendant pleaded 

guilty to an amended charge of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, N.J.S.A. 

2C:11-4(a)(1), in accordance with a plea agreement pursuant to which the State 

agreed to recommend a nineteen-year sentence subject to the requirements of 

the No Early Release Act, N.J.S.A. 2C:43-7.2. During his plea proceeding, 

defendant admitted firing shots from a handgun toward a home as he and others 

drove past the home in a car. Defendant testified the shots did not strike their 
3

A-2051-20

intended target and instead struck an unintended individual thereby causing her 

death.

The court imposed a nineteen-year sentence in accordance with the plea 

agreement. The court found the following aggravating factors: three, the risk 

defendant will commit another offense, N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(a)(3); five, a

substantial likelihood defendant was involved in organized criminal activity, 

N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(a)(5); six, the nature and extent of defendant's prior criminal 

history, N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(a)(6); and nine, the need to deter defendant and others 

from violating the law, N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(a)(9). The court found mitigating 

factor twelve, the willingness of defendant to cooperate with law enforcement

authorities, N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(12). The court further determined the 

aggravating factors preponderated over the mitigating factor.

This court heard defendant's direct appeal from his sentence on an 

Excessive Sentence Oral Argument (ESOA) calendar. See R. 2:9-11 (providing 

a sentencing calendar for criminal appeals in which sentencing is the only issue). 

We determined the record did not support the sentencing court's finding of 

aggravating factor five, and we remanded for resentencing without consideration 

of aggravating factor five. State v. Ralph P. Jamison, No. A-1256-16 (App. Div. 

Feb. 7, 2017) (slip op. at 1). 
4

A-2051-20

At defendant's resentencing, the court again found aggravating factors 

three, six, and nine, and mitigating factor twelve. The court also determined the 

aggravating factors preponderated over the mitigating factor, and the court 

imposed a nineteen-year sentence in accordance with the plea agreement. 

Defendant did not appeal from the final judgment of conviction entered 

following his resentencing.

Defendant filed a PCR petition alleging plea counsel was ineffective by 

failing to: properly confer with him prior to entry of his plea; obtain favorable 

affidavits from family and friends supporting mitigating sentencing factors 

under N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b); argue in support of mitigating factors at sentencing; 

argue the court should consider defendant's substance abuse history in 

mitigation of his sentence; and provide defendant with pretrial discovery. In a 

brief submitted by his counsel, defendant also argued plea counsel was 

ineffective by failing to argue at sentencing and resentencing that the court 

should consider defendant's relative youth as a non-statutory mitigating factor. 

Defendant further asserted plea counsel was ineffective by failing to argue for a 

term less than nineteen years at resentencing because the court originally 

imposed sentence a nineteen-year sentence based in part on a finding of 
5

A-2051-20

aggravating factor five, which the ESOA panel determined the court could not 

consider on resentencing.

After hearing argument, the court denied defendant's petition, finding 

defendant failed to establish a prima facie claim of ineffective assistance of his 

plea counsel at sentencing and resentencing. The court entered an order denying 

the PCR petition without an evidentiary hearing. 

Defendant appeals from the order and presents the following arguments 

for our consideration:

POINT I

THE LOWER COURT ERRED IN FINDING THAT 

TRIAL COUNSEL PROVIDED EFFECTIVE 

REPRESENTATION DURING THE SENTENCING 

AND RE-SENTENCING PORTIONS OF THE CASE.

POINT II

BECAUSE THE PETITIONER MADE A PRIMA 

FACIE SHOWING OF INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE 

OF TRIAL COUNSEL, THE COURT MISAPPLIED 

ITS DISCRETION IN DENYING POSTCONVICTION RELIEF WITHOUT CONDUCTING 

A FULL EVIDENTIARY HEARING.

II.

We review the legal conclusions of a PCR court de novo. State v. Harris,

181 N.J. 391, 419 (2004). The de novo standard of review also applies to mixed 
6

A-2051-20

questions of fact and law. Id. at 420. Where, as here, an evidentiary hearing 

has not been held, it is within our authority "to conduct a de novo review of both 

the factual findings and legal conclusions of the PCR court." Id. at 421

(emphasis in original). We apply these standards here.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I,

Paragraph 10 of the New Jersey Constitution guarantee that a defendant in a 

criminal proceeding has the right to the assistance of counsel in his or her 

defense. The right to counsel includes "the right to the effective assistance of

counsel." State v. Nash, 212 N.J. 518, 541 (2013) (quoting Strickland v.

Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686 (1984)).

In Strickland, the Court established a two-part test, later adopted by our 

Supreme Court in State v. Fritz, 105 N.J. 42, 58 (1987), as the standard 

applicable under the New Jersey Constitution, to determine whether a defendant 

has been deprived of the effective assistance of counsel. Strickland, 466 U.S. at

687. Under the first prong of the Strickland standard, a petitioner must show 

counsel's performance was deficient. Ibid. A petitioner must demonstrate 

counsel's handling of the matter "fell below an objective standard of 

reasonableness" and "counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not 
7

A-2051-20

functioning as the 'counsel' guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment." 

Id. at 687-88.

Under the second prong of the Strickland standard, a defendant must 

"affirmatively prove" "a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's 

unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different." 

State v. Gideon, 244 N.J. 538, 551 (2021) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694). 

A petitioner must demonstrate "counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive 

the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable." Strickland, 466 U.S. 

at 687. "The error committed must be so serious as to undermine the court's 

confidence in the jury's verdict or result reached." State v. Chew, 179 N.J. 186,

204 (2004) (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694).

"With respect to both prongs of the Strickland test, a defendant asserting

ineffective assistance of counsel on PCR bears the burden of proving his or her 

right to relief by a preponderance of the evidence." State v. Gaitan, 209 N.J.

339, 350 (2012) (citing State v. Echols, 199 N.J. 344, 357 (2009); State v.

Goodwin, 173 N.J. 583, 593 (2002)). A failure to satisfy either prong of the

Strickland standard requires the denial of a PCR petition. Strickland, 466 U.S.

at 700; Nash, 212 N.J. at 542; Fritz, 105 N.J. at 52.
8

A-2051-20

Defendant was three days shy of his twenty-second birthday when he 

committed the aggravated manslaughter to which he pleaded guilty in 2014. 

When first sentenced in 2016 and later resentenced in 2017, the sentencing court 

was not required to consider defendant's relative youth as a statutory mitigating 

factor under N.J.S.A. 2C:44-(1)(b).1 

In any event, even in the absence of a statutory mitigating factor based on

relative youth, long prior to defendant's sentencing and resentencing, our 

Supreme Court "recognized that a 'defendant's relative youth ordinarily would 

inure to his [or her] benefit'" in the determination of an appropriate sentence. 

State v. Rivera, 249 N.J. 285, 301 (2021) (quoting State v. Dunbar, 108 N.J. 80, 

95 (1987)); see also State v. Pindale, 249 N.J. Super. 266, 289 (App. Div. 1991) 

(explaining youth was "not one of the delineated statutory mitigating 

circumstances," but noting the sentencing court's failure to give "consideration 

to [the] defendant's youth"); State v. Tanksley, 245 N.J. Super. 390, 397 (App. 

Div. 1991) (remanding for resentencing a seventeen-year-old defendant on an 

1

 In 2020, the legislature amended N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b) to add statutory 

mitigating factor fourteen – "[t]he defendant was under [twenty-six] years of 

age at the time of the commission of the offense." L. 2020, c. 110, § 1 (eff. Oct. 

19, 2020). In State v. Bellamy, we held mitigating factor fourteen applies only 

to sentences or resentences occurring after N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)'s effective date. 

468 N.J. Super. 29, 43-45 (App. Div. 2021).
9

A-2051-20

aggravated manslaughter conviction and noting the defendant's relative youth 

should inure to his benefit at resentencing). Thus, when the court sentenced and 

resentenced defendant there was support in the extant law that his relative youth 

should "inure to his benefit" in the sentencing calculus. Rivera, 249 N.J. at 301.

At defendant's initial sentencing and resentencing, his counsel did not 

argue his relative youth should either inure to his benefit or should be considered 

by court in mitigation of the sentence. In State v. Hess, the Court held the failure 

of counsel to "present mitigating evidence or argue for mitigating factors" at 

sentencing constitutes deficient performance under Strickland's first prong

where "the sentencing court was deprived of information and arguments that 

might well have led it to impose a lesser term." 207 N.J. 123, 154 (2011). 

Defendant argues the PCR court should have concluded that is precisely what 

he established here.

In assessing an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, "[a]lthough a 

demonstration of prejudice constitutes the second part of the Strickland analysis, 

courts are permitted leeway to choose to examine first whether a defendant has 

been prejudiced, and if not, to dismiss the claim without determining whether 

counsel's performance was constitutionally deficient." Gaitan, 209 N.J. at 350

(citation omitted). We employ that mode of analysis here.
10 A-2051-20

That is, even if we assume counsel's performance was deficient at 

sentencing and resentencing by failing to make an affirmative argument 

defendant's relative youth should inure to his benefit in mitigation of his 

sentence, defendant makes no showing that but for counsel's alleged errors there 

is a reasonable probability the result of either sentencing proceeding would have 

been different under Strickland's second prong. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694.

In the first instance, counsel's alleged error did not deprive either 

sentencing court of any information concerning defendant's relative youth. See

Hess, 207 N.J. at 154. At the initial sentencing, the court expressly noted 

defendant's age.

2

 At defendant's resentencing, the presentence report included 

defendant's date of birth and the date the crime was committed, and the court 

again made express reference to defendant's age during its imposition of 

sentence. Defendant was twenty-four years of age at each sentencing 

proceeding, and the sentencing courts were fully aware of the date of the offense, 

and thus defendant's age, at the time of the commission of the crime. In other 

words, counsel's failure to expressly mention defendant's relative youth at the 

sentencing proceedings did not deprive the court of any information pertinent to 

2

 The record on appeal does not include the presentence report submitted in 

connection with defendant's original sentencing.
11 A-2051-20

its sentencing decision that might have led the court to impose a lesser term. 

See ibid.

Moreover, the court's findings of aggravating and mitigating factors at 

defendant's resentencing do not permit a reasoned conclusion that had counsel 

made an express argument concerning defendant's relative youth, there is a 

reasonable probability a lesser term would have been imposed. Again, the court 

was fully aware of defendant's relative youth but nonetheless imposed the 

nineteen-year sentence in accordance with the plea agreement. 

The sentence is also well-supported by the court's finding of aggravating 

factors three, six, and nine; the court's determination mitigating factor twelve

should be given only slight weight; and the court's conclusion the aggravating 

factors preponderate over the sole mitigating factor. Defendant did not appeal 

from the court's resentence, and does not argue the court's findings do not 

support imposition of what is a below-midrange sentence of nineteen years for 

an aggravated manslaughter conviction that otherwise carries a sentencing range 

of between ten and thirty years. See N.J.S.A. 2C:11-4(c) (setting a ten-to-thirtyyear sentencing range for aggravated manslaughter under N.J.S.A. 2C:11-

4(a)(1)). 
12 A-2051-20

Defendant simply makes no showing satisfying his burden under 

Strickland's second prong that had his counsel affirmatively argued defendant's 

youth should inure to his benefit at sentencing, the court's weighing of the 

statutory factors would have been so affected as to establish a reasonable 

probability he would have received a reduced sentence. Indeed, neither 

defendant's PCR petition nor the arguments he presented to the PCR court satisfy

the prejudice prong of the Strickland standard. Defendant's failure to satisfy his 

burden under Strickland's second prong alone requires the denial of his PCR 

petition. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 700; Nash, 212 N.J. at 542. 

Defendant also argues the PCR court erred by rejecting his claim the 

resentencing court could not properly impose the same nineteen-year sentence 

initially imposed because the court based the initial sentence in part on a finding 

of aggravating factor five, and the ESOA panel required the court to reconsider

the sentence without reference to aggravating factor five. The argument is 

founded on the premise that because the resentencing court could not consider 

an aggravating factor relied on by the initial sentencing court, the resentencing 

court was obligated to impose a lesser sentence.

We reject the argument because it ignores that the initial sentencing court 

found aggravating factor five, but gave it only "slight consideration," noting in 
13 A-2051-20

the original judgment of conviction aggravating factor was given "[s]light 

weight." Thus, aggravating factor five did not play a significant role in the 

weighing of the aggravating factors that supported the court's imposition of 

initial sentence. 

Additionally, the resentencing court's thoughtful and thorough findings 

and weighing of the aggravating and mitigating factors — findings defendant

opted not to challenge on direct appeal — fully support the sentence imposed 

even when the "slight weight" previously given to aggravating factor five is 

excluded from the sentencing analysis. Moreover, although every "sentence 

imposed must be a lawful one, [a] court's decision to impose a sentence in 

accordance with a plea agreement," as the resentencing court did here, "should 

be given great respect, since a 'presumption of reasonableness . . . attaches to 

criminal sentences imposed on plea bargain defendants.'" State v. S.C., 289 N.J. 

Super. 61, 71 (App. Div. 1996) (omission in original) (quoting State v. Sainz, 

107 N.J. 283, 294 (1987)). 

In sum, defendant's claim the resentencing court was required to impose 

a lesser sentence simply because it could not consider aggravating factor five as 

it had when it originally imposed sentence is unsupported by any citation to legal 
14 A-2051-20

authority and otherwise lacks support in the sentencing record.

3

 The PCR court 

properly rejected the claim as a basis for the relief sought in defendant's petition.

We also reject defendant's argument the court erred by denying the PCR 

petition without an evidentiary hearing. "To obtain an evidentiary hearing on a 

PCR petition, a defendant must establish a prima facie case for relief, material 

issues of disputed fact, and show that an evidentiary hearing is necessary to 

resolve the claims." State v. O'Donnell, 435 N.J. Super. 351, 370 (App. Div.

2014) (citing R. 3:22-10(b)); see also State v. Porter, 216 N.J. 343, 354 (2013). 

"A prima facie case is established when a defendant demonstrates 'a reasonable 

likelihood that his or her claim, viewing the facts alleged in the light most 

favorable to the defendant, will ultimately succeed on the merits.'" Porter, 216 

N.J. at 355 (quoting R. 3:22-10(b)). As noted, defendant failed to establish a 

prima facie ineffective assistance of counsel claim under the Strickland standard 

and, for that reason alone, the PCR court correctly determined he was not 

entitled to an evidentiary hearing. Ibid. 

3

 To the extent defendant's claim is that he is entitled to PCR because the 

resentencing court erred in the imposition of sentence following our remand 

order, the claim is also barred under Rule 3:22-4 because it could have been 

raised on direct appeal from the judgment of conviction entered following his 

resentencing. Hess, 207 N.J. at 145.
15 A-2051-20

To the extent we have not expressly addressed any arguments made in 

support of defendant's appeal, we have determined they are without sufficient 

merit to warrant discussion in a written opinion. R. 2:11-3(e)(2).

Affirmed.