Opinion ID: 2257779
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant's Plan to Commit Other Crimes

Text: Defendant objects to the admission of evidence that he and Bryant planned to commit other crimes, including robbing a bank or another gas station. In his second taped statement, defendant confessed to such plans. The trial court, however, held that the relevance of the plan to defendant's state of mind outweighed its prejudicial effect. See N.J.R.E. 404(b). This decision did not constitute an abuse of the trial court's discretion. See State v. Marrero, 148 N.J. 469, 505, 691 A. 2d 293 (1997). Defense counsel did not request a limiting instruction at either the guilt or penalty phases. Such an instruction could have advised the jury to use the evidence only in determining defendant's motive, intent, and state of mind, and not as suggesting defendant's predisposition to commit the robbery and murder for which he was charged. See State v. Nance, 148 N.J. 376, 391, 689 A. 2d 1351 (1997). The State did not reintroduce the evidence that defendant and Bryant planned other robberies at the penalty phase. At the penalty phase, the court instructed the jury to disregard the Chrostowski robbery and not to consider any aggravating factor other than those proposed by the State. Against that background, we do not find plain error in the court's failure to provide a limiting instruction dealing specifically with defendant's plans to rob a bank or another gas station. R. 2:10-2; see also Loftin, supra, 146 N.J. at 396, 680 A. 2d 677 (noting defense counsel specifically requested that no limiting instruction be given for fear such instruction would work to defendant's detriment); cf. Rose, supra, 112 N.J. at 505-08, 548 A. 2d 1058 (finding reversible error in absence of any limiting instruction regarding the extensive, provocative other-crimes evidence, which was introduced at the penalty phase).