Opinion ID: 1476684
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Homicide and Guilt-Phase Trial

Text: As we remarked in our earlier decision, Dunn's testimony provided the only direct evidence linking defendant to Huggins's murder. Harris I, supra, 156 N.J. at 136, 716 A. 2d 458. The jury could have found the following factual account from her testimony and the State's other evidence. Dunn and defendant met in September 1992 while waiting at the City of Trenton's welfare agency. During a phone conversation at around the time of Thanksgiving that year, defendant proposed robbing a luncheonette in downtown Trenton. Dunn agreed. They met at 8:00 a.m. on December 17, 1992, at the corner of Market and South Broad streets, to execute the robbery and proceeded toward downtown Trenton, defendant riding his bicycle and Dunn walking. Defendant showed Dunn the gun he was carrying and stated that he wanted to carjack somebody to obtain a car. Dunn asked defendant what he planned to do with the person he would carjack, and defendant replied that if the victim was black, he would tie her up and leave her somewhere, but that he would kill a white victim. As they passed the Trenton Club, defendant saw a young woman drive her red sports car into the club's parking lot. He stated to Dunn: [T]here's the car, I'm going to get that bitch. Defendant rode his bike to the rear of the parking lot, out of Dunn's sight, and carjacked and kidnapped Kristin Huggins. He drove the car back to Dunn, with Huggins in the front seat, and ordered Dunn at gunpoint to get into the car. Huggins sat on Dunn's lap and pleaded for her safety. Defendant drove to and parked under the Southard Street Bridge. He ordered Huggins to open the front trunk and to get in it, worrying that any onlooker would be suspicious of two black people driving with a white woman. Defendant then drove back to the Trenton Club to retrieve his bicycle. After hiding the bike, defendant became frustrated with the noise Huggins was making from the trunk. He told Dunn that he should have popped that bitch earlier. Harris then drove the car back to, and parked under, the Southard Street Bridge. Defendant and Dunn exited the car, and he opened the trunk. Dunn helped Huggins, trembling with fear, out of the trunk. Defendant then ordered Huggins to get into the car's front seat and to take off her clothes. Ignoring Huggins's crying and her pleas, defendant anally raped her and returned her to the trunk. Then, in a change of mind, defendant decided instead to kill her. As Dunn was helping her out of the trunk, defendant shot Huggins in the back of her head. He dragged Huggins's body a short distance from the car and placed a mattress over her. Defendant and Dunn then drove to his mother's house on Cortlandt Street in Trenton to obtain a shovel to use to bury Huggins. Upon returning to the deserted area under the bridge, Harris shot Huggins again, this time in the face, to ensure that she was dead. He dug a shallow grave and threw her body in it. Rummaging through her belongings, he took approximately thirty dollars in cash and an ATM card from her art bag. After unsuccessfully attempting to sell Huggins's car in New York and Trenton, defendant abandoned it at a construction site behind Mercer Community College, smearing mud throughout its interior to hide fingerprints. During the guilt phase, defense counsel worked to undermine Dunn's credibility. Although the defense essentially conceded felony murder, robbery, and kidnapping, counsel argued that the evidence did not corroborate Dunn's testimony with regard to the sexual assault and whether defendant was actually the trigger-person. The defense emphasized Dunn's twenty-month delay in reporting that rape was involved, the many inconsistencies among her versions of events, her motivation for reward money, her failure to help Huggins, her plea bargain with the State, and her character problems, which included prior drug dealing. Counsel also attacked the police investigation for prematurely ruling out other possible suspects, such as the neighborhood drug users and dealers who testified against defendant. The State's case supported Dunn's testimony. Underwear stains and rectal swabs taken from Huggins's body tested positive for a substance found only in seminal fluid. Other evidence placed the murder weapon in defendant's possession before and after Huggins's disappearance. A ballistics expert testified that the bullets found in Huggins's body came from the gun that authorities found on Harris when he was arrested on unrelated charges, ten days after her disappearance. Harris's nephew, Tariq, who testified that defendant bragged about knock[ing] off some white girl, also stated that he bought that gun for his own use, but then gave it to defendant before December 17, 1992. Also in line with Dunn's testimony, as well as relevant to the other charges, the police discovered Huggins's hair and coat fibers in the trunk of her car, and more fibers were found on a shovel retrieved from defendant's residence.