Opinion ID: 2344370
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Ronald Mazique.

Text: Summary: Mazique went to the forty-one-year old female victim's house to obtain money; purportedly he intended to steal her income tax refund. He killed the victim and her six-year-old grandson by striking them over thirty times each with a hammer. In an effort to cover up the crime, Mazique turned on the gas in an attempt to explode the apartment. Mazique was also a suspect in a double homicide in his home-state of South Carolina. Mazique was convicted of a number of crimes, including capital murder. The jury found that the murder involved an aggravated assault of the victim, was committed to escape detection, and was committed in the course of a robbery. The jury also determined that eight of the ten catch-all mitigating factors presented by Mazique were present, including factors related to childhood abuse. The jury could not reach a unanimous decision on sentencing. As a result, Mazique received consecutive life sentences for the murders and additional terms of imprisonment for other crimes. Comparison: Defendant suggests that his case and Mazique's case present roughly equal degrees of culpability. Defendant points out that although Mazique suffered sexual abuse as a child, he had no documented psychiatric history. Defendant also notes that Mazique was a suspect in two South Carolina homicides. The State, however, asserts that the level of brutality of defendant's crime exceeded that of Mazique. The State further differentiates between these cases by noting that Mazique was a drug and alcohol addict, who had been physically and sexually abused by his father. Whether Mazique was suspected of other killings does not enter into our calculus. For example, in State v. Martini (II), supra, 139 N.J. at 75-76, 651 A. 2d 949, the defendant had pleaded guilty to a double homicide in Arizona, was awaiting trial for murder in Pennsylvania, and was a suspect in four other killings. Nonetheless, we did not consider that information in assessing the defendant's character because the jury had heard neither of his prior record nor evidence of unrelated acts of violence. Id. at 76, 651 A. 2d 949. Here, too, we consider only that evidence heard by the jury in comparing the cases. The jury in Mazique's case accepted eight catch-all mitigating factors related to his traumatic upbringing. Although defendant, too, suffered a troubled childhood, the jury did not credit that evidence to any appreciable extent. Although the cases are quite similar, that distinction likely and rationally explains the difference between defendant's death sentence and Mazique's life sentence.