Opinion ID: 2157140
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: State v. Adam Marrero

Text: On August 26, 1998, twenty-three-year-old Adam Marrero accompanied his uncle to a friend's house where he met his victim, a thirty-four-year-old woman. Marrero left with his victim at around 11:30 p.m., and they were later seen at a local restaurant drinking and dancing. According to a bartender, the two left together at about 1:30 a.m. The next day, the victim's sister reported her missing. Police interviewed Marrero, who said that he took the victim directly home and went to the bar alone. After being confronted with inconsistencies in his story, defendant eventually admitted that he took the victim to the bar and did not get home until 7:00 a.m. The police noticed that Marrero's hands were bruised and his right hand had a small cut. They obtained a court order to hold him. The victim's body was discovered on August 29th in a remote wooded area surrounding Central Park in Vineland. Her body was found nude, with her legs apart and her knees bent. Her arms were extended over her head, as if the body had been dragged. Her clothing was scattered around the area. Because her body was partially decomposed, she had to be positively identified through her dental records. It could not be determined whether she had been sexually assaulted, but seminal fluid found on her clothing matched Marrero, as well as thirty-six percent of the male population. A jailhouse informant told police that Marrero had confessed to having drinks with the victim, having sex with her on the way home, and then grabbing her by the throat after she slapped him. According to Marrero, before he realized what he had done, the victim wasn't breathing. Marrero was indicted for purposeful murder, felony murder, first-degree kidnaping, first-degree aggravated sexual assault, and second-degree sexual assault. He was later convicted on all counts except sexual assault. Marrero grew up with an abusive alcoholic father and was beaten regularly. He never completed high school. At the time of the offense, he was not married but had fathered two children. Marrero claimed that prior to his arrest, he was drinking two to three eight-packs of beer a week, smoking marijuana once or twice a week, and using cocaine once a week. Marrero had worked as a carnival worker, diner employee, farm laborer, and security guard. Marrero had been arrested three previous times for sexual assault and terroristic threats, a second sexual assault, and a third sexual assault and terroristic threats. At the time of the murder, he was on bail awaiting sentencing on those charges. The AOC coded the following factors as present: the c(4)(g) (contemporaneous felony) aggravating factor and the c(5)(h) (catch-all) mitigating factor. For the purposeful murder and felony murder counts, Marrero was sentenced to two concurrent life terms, each having a thirty-year term of parole ineligibility. He also received a consecutive sentence of twenty years imprisonment for kidnaping and a concurrent sentence of twenty years for aggravated sexual assault. At sentencing, Marrero was first sentenced to a seven-year term of imprisonment for a sexual assault charge that he had pled guilty to earlier.