Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 24

Heading: Gerald I. Williams

Text: On the evening of November 23, 1984, Gerald Williams was walking home with his eight year old daughter after buying her ice cream. They came upon Williams' friend J.C. Boyd. Williams and Boyd had some drinks and decided to purchase some drugs. They went to Boyd's wife's home to borrow money; however, she was not home. They then went to an apartment belonging to a friend of Boyd. On the way, they noticed that a door to one of the other apartments was ajar. Hearing a television, they knocked on the door. When there was no answer, they entered the apartment. Williams' daughter remained at the door. Upon entering the apartment, Williams and Boyd found a fifty-one-year-old male asleep on the couch. There were two television sets in the apartment. As Williams turned off the television in the bedroom to steal it, the man awoke. Boyd punched the man and pushed him toward Williams, who threw a cover over the man and banged the man's head against a windowsill. The man broke free, went to the window, and called for help. Williams hit the man over the head. He put down the television and threw the man out of the window. The man fell three floors. The medical examiner concluded that the man died from being struck on the head by a blunt instrument, and would have died even had he not been thrown from the window. Williams searched through a pair of pants draped over a chair, took some money, and left the apartment with the newer of the television sets. After a police investigation revealed that Williams and Boyd may have been responsible for the crime, the police took a statement from Williams' daughter. She admitted seeing Williams throw the man out the window. The AOC narrative classifies this case as having aggravating factor c(4)(g), contemporaneous felony, and mitigating factors c(5)(d), mental disease, defect or intoxication, and c(5)(h), the catch-all factor. Williams was thirty-four years old at the time of the murder. Williams was the father of six, by five different women. Although previously being addicted to drugs, Williams underwent a treatment program from 1978 to 1980, and denied any addiction at the time of the murder. However, prior to the murder, Williams had been drinking. Williams dropped out of school in the tenth grade because he was arrested and subsequently incarcerated. Over the years, Williams was arrested thirty times and served twelve different terms of incarceration as an adult and juvenile. Williams and Boyd were indicted for felony murder, burglary, and robbery. After being granted immunity, Boyd testified against Williams. Williams testified in his own defense, and claimed that the victim accidentally fell out the window as the victim attempted to call for help. Williams was convicted on all three counts. For felony murder, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a parole ineligibility of thirty years. The two other convictions merged. Defendant's conviction for felony murder was reversed because the trial court's charge on causation was deficient under State v. Martin, 119 N.J. 2, 573 A. 2d 1359 (1990). The Appellate Division concluded that a jury could have found that the burglary and robbery were not the direct cause of the victim's death. Williams had testified that the victim awoke during the burglary and was at the window with his legs dangling outside and that he, Williams, had tried to help the victim, but was unsuccessful.