Opinion ID: 1969802
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 40

Heading: 11, A.15, A.60-65, A.79, A.84-86, A.91-97; add-on claim i)

Text: Included in this category are a number of unrelated allegations of discovery violations. Defendant asserts that those violations materially prejudiced his defense. We address all claims on their merits and conclude that dismissal without an evidentiary hearing was appropriate. Defendant first asserts prejudice because of the State's failure to provide copies of all pleadings and supporting documents filed with the State of Louisiana in support of the State's applications to extradite Robert Cumber, Billy Wayne McKinnon, James Davis, and Larry Thompson, but fails to explain the materiality of those documents or to specify the nature of the prejudice suffered. Our examination of the documents persuades us that they contain no significant information not otherwise available to defense counsel and that no prejudice resulted from their nonproduction. Defendant next claims prejudice because of the State's failure to produce in discovery defendant's letter dated October 10, 1985, to Captain Hedin of the Ocean County Jail requesting a contact visit with a woman named Karin O'Dell. Defendant also asserts prejudice because of the nondisclosure of an unidentified memorandum concerning defendant's relationships with other women to which Assistant Prosecutor Kelly referred, as well as the nondisclosure of the source of the State's information about a conversation between defendant and his sons concerning Karin O'Dell. In the same context, defendant claims prejudice because of the nondisclosure of any memoranda reflecting the State's investigation concerning the status of Maria Marshall's ashes and its investigation of defendant's other post-homicide conduct, for use in defendant's cross-examination. On defendant's direct appeal we addressed his challenges to the trial court's evidentiary rulings permitting cross-examination of defendant concerning the disposal of his wife's ashes and his relationships with other women after his wife's death, Marshall I, supra, 123 N.J. at 126-29, 586 A. 2d 85, concluding that the trial court's discretionary rulings should be sustained: Although we find that defendant's affection for his wife was a proper subject of cross-examination, it is a matter of speculation whether defendant's failure to arrange for burial of his wife's ashes was particularly probative on that issue. We also find the potential for prejudice from the admission of that testimony to be significant. We cannot conclude, however, that the State's cross-examination did not adduce evidence that a jury could have found to be material to defendant's stated affection for his deceased wife. We also note that defendant had an opportunity to explain his conduct with respect to the wedding ring, his wife's ashes, and his relationships with two other women. On this record, it is debatable whether the potential for undue prejudice from this evidence substantially outweigh[ed] the probative value, State v. Carter, supra, 91 N.J. at 106, 449 A. 2d 1280, and hence we are satisfied that the trial court's ruling on this issue was well within its broad ambit of discretion. [ Id. at 128-29, 586 A. 2d 85.] Defendant's present challenge focuses on the State's alleged failure to produce in the course of discovery any memoranda or other documents reflecting the State's investigation that developed the factual information used by the prosecutor during defendant's cross-examination. The only specific document defendant identifies is his letter dated October 10, 1985, to Captain Hedin of the Ocean County Jail requesting a contact visit with a woman named Karin O'Dell, although defendant implies that the State must have possessed other documents or memoranda that were used during his cross-examination. The State's failure to produce the letter requesting the contact visit is unexplained, but the State asserts that its production could not conceivably have altered defendant's decision to testify. We are disturbed by the State's apparent inability to explain the nonproduction of the letter requesting a contact visit. Nevertheless, defendant falls far short of the burden of demonstrating a reasonable probability that the result of the trial would have been different if that letter, or any other documents used during defendant's cross-examination, had been produced. See Bagley, supra, 473 U.S. at 682, 105 S.Ct. at 3383, 87 L.Ed. 2d at 494 (plurality opinion of Blackmun, J.). We find meritless defendant's allegation of prejudice arising out of the State's nondisclosure of memoranda of interviews with Sarann Kraushaar in September 1984 that allegedly suggested a connection between the Marshall homicide and the murder of Vincent Craparotta. Defendant fails to explain the materiality of the alleged nondisclosure. We find similarly meritless defendant's claims of prejudice based on the nonproduction of various investigative notes made by Investigator Edward Murphy and by Lieutenant James Churchill. Neither our examination of those notes nor defendant's briefs reveal their materiality or the prejudice caused by their nonproduction. The lack of demonstrated prejudice or materiality also requires dismissal of defendant's claims relating to the State's failure to disclose information possessed by two individuals on the State's witness list who never testified at trial. Finally, defendant claims prejudice due to the State's failure to produce the mailing list prepared by LaSalle, Inc. from Harrah's raffle, which according to defendant would have established that he had used self-parking at Harrah's on the night of the homicide and therefore made his vehicle accessible and subject to tampering. We are satisfied that the tangential materiality of that document precludes its having resulted in prejudice to defendant.