Opinion ID: 1959985
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: DiFrisco I

Text: On August 12, 1986, Edward Potcher, the owner of Jack's Pizzeria in Maplewood, was killed when an assailant shot him at close range four times in the head and once in the body. Through March 1987, the police had no leads in solving this cold-blooded, execution-style killing. On April 1, 1987, defendant was arrested in New York for various traffic violations, car theft, and reckless endangerment. Believing that he would be better served by implicating a higher-up in a murder, defendant confessed to the New York City police that a man named Anthony Franciotti had paid him $2,500 to kill a pizzeria owner in New Jersey. At first incredulous of the defendant's story, the New York police officer asked defendant for details. Defendant did not know where the crime had taken place, nor even the name of the victim. He did know that it involved a pizzeria in New Jersey. He said that Franciotti had paid him to do the killing because the pizza-shop owner was about to inform on Franciotti. He said that Franciotti drove him there on the day of the murder. DiFrisco stated that he entered the pizzeria alone and Franciotti waited in the car while the crime took place. Bit by bit, the New York police closed in on the case. They called New Jersey authorities. They found an unsolved murder in Maplewood, Essex County, fitting the description of the murder in respect of time and place. The last links were the details furnished by the defendant that there were five shots from a .32 caliber automatic gun, that a silencer was used, and that the store sold only whole pizza pies, not slices. Within hours, the Maplewood Police and Essex County homicide officers arrived at the precinct house in the Bronx. Defendant repeated the story to them and signed a confession to the murder implicating Franciotti. Several days later, while in police custody in New Jersey, defendant was to call Franciotti to link him to the murder. The police intended to tape that conversation. Defendant had consulted with a public defender, who advised him to make the call. At the last moment, defendant refused to call Franciotti. He said that his father counseled against further cooperation with the police without the advice of paid counsel. [ Di Frisco I, supra, 118 N.J. at 258-59, 571 A. 2d 914.] An Essex County Grand Jury subsequently indicted defendant for the capital murder of Edward Potcher. The State noted three aggravating factors: outrageously or wantonly vile murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(c); murder for hire, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(d); and murder to escape the detection of another crime, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(f). On January 11, 1988, defendant pled guilty to capital murder, repeating the essence of his confession and responding Yes when asked, And was it your intention to kill him at that time? Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(1), defendant waived a jury for the penalty phase of his trial. The trial court found that two aggravating factors had been proven: that defendant was a hired killer, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(d), and one was killed to avoid the detection of another, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(f). Although the court made no specific finding, it ruled that the c(4)c factor was encompassed in the commission of the murder for a consideration. The trial court also found one mitigating factor, that [t]he defendant rendered substantial assistance to the state in the prosecution of another person for the crime of murder [ N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(5)(g).] It found that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt. The trial court sentenced the defendant to death. The trial court later denied defendant's motion for a new trial. [ Id. at 259, 571 A. 2d 914.] We affirmed defendant's guilt-phase conviction, but reversed his death sentence and remanded for a new sentencing proceeding. Id. at 283, 571 A. 2d 914. After Di Frisco I but prior to the new penalty-phase hearing, defendant twice moved to withdraw his guilty plea. The trial court denied both motions.