Opinion ID: 1969802
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 24

Heading: 13, a.24-28, a.34, a.47, a.56, a.57, a.69, b.37-38, b.97, b.98, b.106-08, b.133-37, b.141-42, b.160-62, b.179)

Text: Defendant asserts various discovery violations and ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims that allegedly precluded the defense from demonstrating that the insurance policies on Maria Marshall's life did not constitute a motive for her murder. We address those claims on their merits and conclude that their dismissal without an evidentiary hearing was appropriate. Several claims of discovery violations relate to the State's failure to provide in discovery most of the contents of the files of Edwin O'Malley, the attorney whom Mrs. Marshall had retained to advise her concerning problems in her marriage. Defendant contends that that file contained lists of insurance policies and other references to financial matters in Mrs. Marshall's handwriting, and that its production would have assisted defense counsel in rebutting the State's contention that defendant had amassed life insurance coverage on his wife without her knowledge and consent. Although the State's proofs sought to establish Mrs. Marshall's unfamiliarity with the amount of insurance on her life, that issue was contested. Indeed, on direct appeal we had occasion to review the admissibility of hearsay testimony intended to establish Mrs. Marshall's lack of knowledge about a specific insurance policy, and we concluded that the admission of the testimony was harmless error because the record strongly suggests that Mrs. Marshall must have been aware that the examination and application form related to life insurance. Marshall I, supra, 123 N.J. at 112, 586 A. 2d 85. Moreover, defendant testified extensively about the capital-needs analysis that he had prepared to ascertain his and the victim's insurance requirements, asserting that the amount of insurance that had been acquired was reasonable, necessary, and consistent with sound insurance practice. He readily acknowledged that he had made the decisions about insurance purchases, and that he had been authorized by Mrs. Marshall to make those decisions and to sign her name to applications for insurance. Finally, our examination of the handwritten notes in attorney O'Malley's file persuades us that, although they contain numerous references, without context, to various insurance companies and insurance policies, the notes would not have been useful to establish whether or not Mrs. Marshall actually was knowledgeable about the details of the family's life insurance portfolio. Other alleged discovery violations relate to documents concerning accidental-death policies on the lives of defendant and Mrs. Marshall issued by Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company as a result of a solicitation of mortgagors of Jersey Shore Savings and Loan, the bank that held the mortgage on the Marshalls' home. Defendant contends that the State's failure to produce in discovery documents concerning the acquisition of those policies impeded defense counsel's ability to cross-examine an employee of Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company who testified at trial about the issuance of the policies. We have examined the documents and conclude that defense counsel's cross-examination of that witness would not have been materially enhanced by the documents in question. Equally without merit is defendant's allegation of prejudice based on the State's failure to produce the qualifications of or any expert's report from Richard Tidey, an assistant director of a State Police laboratory who allegedly had examined the signatures on some of Mrs. Marshall's life insurance policy applications but offered no testimony at trial concerning them. A number of the ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims raised by defendant in this claim category relate to defense counsel's failure to object to the testimony of Tidey on the basis of the State's failure to produce his expert report or a statement of his qualifications as a handwriting expert. We discern no prejudice arising from defense counsel's actions. We again note that Tidey, who had eighteen years experience working in the State Police Questioned Document Unit, gave no testimony about signatures on insurance policy applications. Nor has any evidence been proffered by defendant to suggest that Tidey was not qualified to provide the expert testimony concerning other documents elicited from him by the Assistant Prosecutor. Defendant alleges that counsel was ineffective in preparing to cross-examine Nikki Daly, defendant's former secretary, and in failing to elicit testimony from Daly concerning the reasons for defendant's departure from his office on the morning of September 6, 1984, and the circumstances concerning the mailing of a life insurance policy application to First Colony Insurance Company without defendant signing the premium check. Although we express no view about whether counsel's cross-examination of Daly could have been more comprehensive, we are convinced that defendant sustained no material prejudice. Daly specifically testified that defendant had left the office on the morning of September 6, 1984, shortly after receiving a telephone call around 10:00 a.m., and that he had left because Daly had reminded him that he had scheduled an insurance policy physical examination for ten o'clock that morning. Concerning the First Colony policy, defendant specifically testified that Daly had mistakenly mailed the First Colony applications with an unsigned check and that he had decided not to pursue the policy because Mrs. Marshall had resumed smoking cigarettes and the First Colony smokers' rates were too high. Additional cross-examination of Daly on those points would merely have been corroborative. Defendant's remaining ineffectiveness-of-counsel claims in this claim category relate generally to counsel's failure to procure expert testimony to corroborate defendant's testimony about the reasonableness of the amount of insurance placed on the life of Mrs. Marshall. Other claims include counsel's failure to interview Edwin O'Malley, counsel's failure to object to so-called expert testimony elicited from Maria O'Phelan, an employee of Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Co., and counsel's failure to request a mistrial or curative instruction when the prosecutor during cross-examination of John Zerrer stated that one does not make much money selling term insurance unless you collect on a policy. Although the credibility of defendant's testimony about the reasonableness of the amount of life insurance in force on Mrs. Marshall would obviously have been enhanced by corroborating testimony from an independent expert, we cannot conclude that there is any likelihood that the presentation of such expert testimony could have affected the jury's verdict. The uncontroverted evidence demonstrated that Mrs. Marshall's life was insured by more than one million dollars in life insurance and that most of the policies had been acquired in 1984, the year in which the homicide occurred. No matter what expert testimony was elicited, the jury could infer from the evidence of defendant's debt and his relationship with Sarann Kraushaar that the amount of insurance could have constituted a motive for the homicide. We are unpersuaded that defendant was materially prejudiced by any of the other omissions of counsel forming the basis for claims of ineffectiveness. We consider insignificant counsel's alleged failure to interview Edwin O'Malley, and in our view Maria O'Phelan did not provide expert testimony but merely testified about the practices of her employer. The prosecutor's remark about the unprofitability of selling term insurance was highly inappropriate and the trial court properly sustained counsel's objection, but we reject the contention that counsel was deficient in failing to request a mistrial or curative instruction.