Opinion ID: 1969802
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 32

Heading: 33-35, b.40, b.60, b.101-02, b.144-45, b.178, b.186-89, b.204-05, b.224, b.227-29)

Text: The claims in this category allege that defendant's trial counsel was ineffective in failing to present evidence that would have corroborated various assertions made by defendant during his trial testimony. Among the assertions that counsel allegedly failed to corroborate are: defendant's insistence that at the time he made the suicide tape he truly planned to kill himself; defendant's claim that his love for his late wife was genuine; and defendant's statement that he hired an investigator not to murder his wife, but rather to investigate her financial activities. Adjudicating the claims in this category on the merits, we conclude that they should be dismissed without an evidentiary hearing. The first set of claims in this category pertains to defendant's testimony that he checked into the Best Western Motel in Lakewood on September 27, 1984, with the intention of taking his own life. At trial, the State questioned that testimony, suggesting that defendant had staged his purported suicide attempt. On PCR review, defendant asserts that trial counsel inadequately investigated defendant's suicide claim and, as a result, was unprepared to argue to the jury that defendant's suicide plans were sincere. Specifically, defendant argues that counsel was ineffective in failing to obtain various medical records concerning defendant's admission into a psychiatric hospital following his purported suicide attempt. However, defendant presents to this Court only one document that arguably could have aided his attempt to convince the jury that his suicide plans were sincere. That document is the discharge summary from the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, where, as defendant testified, he stayed for twelve days following his purported suicide attempt. Our review of the discharge summary persuades us that there is not a reasonable probability that the result of defendant's trial would have been different had that document been introduced into evidence. See Strickland, supra, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068, 80 L.Ed. 2d at 698. Although the discharge summary indeed mentions defendant's suicidal state at the time of his admission into the hospital, it also notes that he was rational, coherent, alert, goal oriented, and that his affect was appropriate. Moreover, even if defendant could have used the discharge summary to lead jurors to conclude that the suicide attempt was genuine, we fail to discern how such a conclusion could have materially affected the jury's verdict. The question whether defendant planned to kill himself on September 27, 1984, is largely irrelevant to the determination of whether defendant arranged the September 7, 1984, murder of his wife. The jury could have concluded that defendant planned to take his life on September 27 because of his awareness of his guilt and his fear of being tried and convicted for a murder he knew that he had committed. Defendant also alleges that trial counsel was ineffective in not corroborating defendant's testimony concerning his love for his late wife. While cross-examining defendant, the State had suggested that defendant's expressions of love for Maria were scripted rather than sincere. Referring to the fact that defendant was wearing his wedding ring at trial, the prosecutor asked defendant whether defense counsel or Investigator Kolins had advised defendant to wear the ring. Counsel objected, and the trial court sustained the objection. Defendant then explained that the ring was a reflection of his love for his late wife and that he was not permitted to wear the ring in prison so he was eager to do so at trial. On PCR review, defendant claims that counsel should have corroborated that testimony by calling a second witness to testify about the Ocean County Jail's rule against wearing jewelry. In view of the sustained objection to the State's question and defendant's thorough and informative response to the question, we conclude that counsel was not ineffective in concluding that he could better represent his client by pursuing other areas of inquiry. After asking defendant about his decision to wear his wedding ring at trial, the prosecutor questioned defendant about the fact that Maria Marshall's ashes remained in a brown cardboard box at the funeral home over a year after her death. Defendant explained that the family had planned to bury the ashes in Florida, as Maria had requested, but that defendant's arrest had forced the family to postpone its Florida burial plans. Defendant now asserts that counsel was ineffective in failing to present testimony from defendant's sister and defendant's travel agent confirming the family's postponed Florida travel plans. Defendant also presents an affidavit from the Quinn-Hopping Funeral Home explaining that Maria Marshall's ashes were being kept in a storage room in the funeral home. Defendant claims that a representative from the funeral home should have been called to testify that families often leave a deceased's ashes at the funeral home for a period of time before taking possession of the remains. We conclude that the decision not to elicit the testimony in question from defendant's sister, defendant's travel agent, or the funeral-home representative does not reflect ineffective assistance of counsel. Instead of presenting that testimony, counsel called to the witness stand one of defendant's sons who fully corroborated defendant's explanation of the family's Florida burial plans. In our view, further testimony on that peripheral topic would not have materially aided defendant's chances of being acquitted of the charged offenses. Defendant also alleges that trial counsel inadequately dealt with defendant's pretrial statement to police officers that he was not having an extramarital affair during the weeks preceding his wife's death. At trial, defendant testified that while being questioned at the Bass River State Police Barracks he had denied that he had been having an affair, and he admitted at trial that that denial had been a lie. Detective Petracca, testifying for the State, substantially corroborated defendant's account of the police questioning concerning defendant's extramarital affair, but testified that the questioning had occurred at defendant's house, not at the police barracks. On PCR review, defendant claims that trial counsel should have impeached Petracca's testimony with Investigator Murphy's police report, which stated that defendant's denial of the affair had been made at the police barracks. We find defendant's claim to be entirely without merit. The significance of defendant's denial of his relationship with Kraushaar was that the denial was a lie. The location at which defendant uttered the lie was irrelevant to defendant's case, and thus counsel was not ineffective in not attempting to corroborate defendant's testimony on that point. Defendant presents three claims pertaining to defendant's relationship with Robert Cumber, the person who led defendant to Billy Wayne McKinnon. During his trial testimony, defendant attempted to explain his reasons for becoming involved with Cumber. He explained that he had met Cumber at a party hosted by a neighbor and that he and Cumber had been drinking at the time. Defendant testified that he had told Cumber that some of his recent earnings could not be accounted for, and that he suspected that Maria had the missing money. Defendant testified that he had told Cumber that he wanted to hire an investigator to locate those missing funds. On PCR review, defendant claims that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to elicit the fact that defendant's accusations concerning his wife were preceded by comments made by Cumber about problems that he was having in his own marriage. Defendant also claims that counsel should have presented testimony concerning the fact that defendant attempted to solicit business from Cumber in connection with defendant's work as an insurance agent and financial consultant. However, defendant has not explained how eliciting that information would have materially aided his case. We therefore find these claims to be without merit. Defendant also alleges generally that trial counsel did not develop a consistent strategy with respect to defendant's decision to hire an investigator. However, defendant fails to explain what consistent strategy counsel could have adopted that could have affected the outcome of defendant's trial. We find this claim to be without merit. Two of defendant's claims pertain to the State's effort to demonstrate the existence of a relationship between defendant and Billy Wayne McKinnon, who, at trial, admitted that he had participated in the murder of Maria Marshall. The State, attempting to prove that defendant and McKinnon were in contact in the days preceding Maria Marshall's death, used defendant's phone records to show that he had called Harrah's Marina Casino in Atlantic City at the same time that McKinnon had been staying at Harrah's. Defendant now asserts that trial counsel should have used those phone records to demonstrate that defendant had called Harrah's on a regular basis and that the fact that defendant had called there while McKinnon was there did not indicate that defendant had made the calls in an attempt to reach McKinnon. Defendant also argues that trial counsel should have presented witnesses who could have demonstrated that although McKinnon and defendant had a meeting in Atlantic City on September 6, 1984, defendant did not make the trip to Atlantic City solely to meet with McKinnon. Specifically, defendant claims that counsel should have presented the testimony of a representative from the Meadows Restaurant, which is located in Harrah's, to testify that defendant had made dinner reservations at that location before the date on which defendant had learned that McKinnon was in Atlantic City. That testimony, defendant argues, would have corroborated defendant's own testimony concerning his motives for going to Atlantic City on September 6. In our view, these two claims concerning the relationship between defendant and McKinnon are without merit. In his testimony, defendant admitted that there had been ongoing communications between him and McKinnon. The issue that defendant and the State disputed at trial was whether those communications had included a plot to murder Maria Marshall. The testimony concerning the restaurant reservation and the frequency of defendant's calls to Harrah's would have been irrelevant to that critical issue and thus counsel was not ineffective in electing not to pursue those areas of inquiry. One of defendant's claims pertains to defendant's testimony that he used self-parking instead of valet-parking at Harrah's on the night of his wife's death because self-parking on that night rendered the car owner eligible for a raffle prize. The defense theory was that because defendant had self-parked his car that night, passers-by had access to the car and could have inflicted the damage to defendant's tire that later caused defendant to pull off of the road and into the Oyster Creek Picnic Area. On PCR review, defendant claims that trial counsel was ineffective in not corroborating defendant's testimony by offering the raffle ticket from that night into evidence. However, the raffle ticket itself would not have materially aided the jury's evaluation of the one significant issue relating to this area of defendant's testimony: whether someone had tampered with defendant's tire at Harrah's. Because the raffle ticket itself is almost entirely irrelevant to the question whether defendant is guilty of his wife's murder, counsel was not ineffective in not offering the ticket into evidence. Lastly, defendant presents two claims that trial counsel was ineffective in handling the testimony of defendant's son, John, who testified about defendant's demeanor on the night he made the suicide tape. Defendant claims that counsel should have also questioned John about defendant's demeanor on the night of Maria Marshall's death, and that counsel failed to ascertain whether there was any other information that John knew that could have been helpful to the defense. However, defendant is unable to explain what information John possessed that could have aided defendant's case or affected the result of defendant's trial. Accordingly, those claims were properly dismissed by the PCR court.