Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Rijoberto Mejia

Text: This case is reported at State v. Mejia, 141 N.J. 475, 662 A. 2d 308 (1995). In the summer of 1991, Mejia and Balbino Garcia were co-workers at a hotel. Before Mejia was fired, he asked Garcia to safeguard his savings of $750. After moving to Brooklyn, Mejia called Garcia to recover his money, but Garcia refused to return the money. Mejia then learned that Garcia intended to return to Mexico on December 8, 1991. Three hours before the flight, Mejia, armed with a .357 Magnum, and an accomplice armed, with a knife, confronted Garcia in the hotel basement. Mejia chased Garcia into a bedroom occupied by Garcia's brother-in-law and nephew. Mejia pointed the gun at the three men. Garcia tried to take the pistol from Mejia, but Mejia struck Garcia, fracturing his skull. Garcia fled down the hallway with Mejia in pursuit, and Mejia shot and killed him. According to the State's ballistics expert, the gun was within inches of Garcia's head when he was shot. Mejia was arrested three days later after Garcia's nephew spotted him walking on the boardwalk. Mejia was thirty-two years old at the time of the crime. He was an illegal immigrant and had worked as a dishwasher, painter and construction worker. He was educated through the eighth grade and had received an honorable discharge from the Honduran Army after having served for five years. He had no prior criminal record. Mejia had an alcohol and drug problem and had been abused as a child. Mejia was convicted of capital murder, felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of a weapon. At the penalty trial, the jury found aggravating factor c(4)(g), that the murder was convicted during the course of a robbery, and mitigating factor c(5)(h), the catch-all factor. Under c(5)(h), the jury found that Mejia had suffered psychological and physical abuse at the hands of his father, and that he was the victim of emotional deprivation from his parents. The jury sentenced Mejia to death. The court imposed a custodial term on the other convictions. We reversed Mejia's death sentence finding plain error with the trial court's failure to instruct the jury that it could return a non-unanimous verdict that defendant intended only to cause SBI that resulted in death. Relying on Mejia's confession in which he claimed that his gun fired accidentally and that he never intended to kill, we found that there was a rational basis for a jury to find that Mejia did not purposely and knowingly intend to kill Garcia but only intended to cause him serious bodily injury that resulted in death. Mejia, supra, 141 N.J. at 506, 662 A. 2d 308. Mejia's convictions were affirmed.