Opinion ID: 1536017
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Simon's Plea Establishing Capital Murder

Text: Defendant contends that even if this Court were to find that his plea was voluntary, his plea failed to establish that he was the gunman or that he committed the murder purposefully or knowingly. Specifically, defendant argues that his statements during the plea hearing only admitted to recklessness, which is the mens rea for aggravated manslaughter, not purposeful or knowing murder. In addition, defendant asserts that his statements implicating himself as the gunman were not supported by the evidence from the scene. Therefore, he urges the Court to vacate his conviction and death sentence. When taking the plea, the trial court asked defendant to explain the factual basis for his plea of guilty to capital murder. Defendant responded that when he got out of the car, Sergeant Gonzalez was going for his gun and defendant wanted Sergeant Gonzalez away from him, so defendant pulled his gun and shot the victim. He stated that he shot Sergeant Gonzalez to get Sergeant Gonzalez away from him, because he did not want to go back to prison. When asked if he intended to kill the officer, defendant responded I intended to get him away from me, your Honor. I guess if that took killing him, you know. Defendant said he shot Sergeant Gonzalez two times while standing within six feet of him, and he thought the victim was struck in the head or neck and in the chest. Defendant was asked are you guilty of killing Officer Gonzalez knowing that what you were doing was practically certain to result in his death or serious bodily injury? Defendant responded: I knew I was going to cause [a lot] of injury to him, yes, sir. Like I said, I didn't care about his death. I didn't think of that. So, yeah, okay, guilty, yes, sir. The trial court was satisfied that defendant's guilty plea, when considered in conjunction with other information made available to the court pursuant to Rule 3:9-2, established capital murder. In accepting the plea, the trial court stated that defendant did, without justification, knowingly and purposely fire two shots into the body [of Sergeant Gonzalez] at close range... and that he did so ... by his own conduct. The trial court further stated that defendant pulled the trigger and fired the shot and that he did so under circumstances in which it was practically certain and that he knew that it was practically certain that doing that would result in serious bodily injury, if not death, and that the circumstances under which he did this, at close range, two shots, not one, to the upper body ... area, manifested a reckless indifference as to whether or not death would result.