Court Opinion

ID: 9910728
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-12-18 15:06:44.613706+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:53:59.593234
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE
                               APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
        This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court ." Although it is posted on the
     internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.

                                                        SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
                                                        APPELLATE DIVISION
                                                        DOCKET NO. A-2458-21

STATE OF NEW JERSEY,

          Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.

CARLOS ALVES,

          Defendant-Appellant.

                   Submitted December 11, 2023 – Decided December 18, 2023

                   Before Judges Sabatino and Chase.

                   On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law
                   Division, Essex County, Indictment No. 99-10-3250.

                   Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney for
                   appellant (Laura B. Lasota, Assistant Deputy Public
                   Defender, of counsel and on the brief).

                   Theodore N. Stephens II, Acting Essex County
                   Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Braden Bendon
                   Couch, Special Deputy Attorney General/Acting
                   Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief).

PER CURIAM
      This criminal case arising from a 2001 murder conviction returns to this

court a sixth time.1 We need not recite the lengthy factual and procedural history

here, which is familiar to the parties, and instead incorporate by reference the

details stated in our five prior opinions.

      The following background will suffice for the present appeal. At around

noon on August 14, 1999, Maria Lobo, the girlfriend of defendant Carlos Alves,

was found dead in the New Jersey apartment they shared. Lobo died from

strangulation.

      The parties had been together on August 11, 1999, which was the last time

Lobo was seen alive by third parties. Defendant left the United States on a flight

to Portugal on August 12. According to defendant, he left the country suddenly

after being informed his father in Portugal was very ill and near death.

      The State medical examiner placed Lobo's time of death as being

approximately seventy-two hours before her body was found, i.e., on or about

August 11. Defendant's expert, meanwhile, estimated the time of death at thirty-

1
  State v. Alves, No. A-2944-15 (App. Div. Mar. 12, 2018), certif. denied, 236
N.J. 14 (2018); State v. Alves, No. A-4755-13 (App. Div. Oct. 6, 2016); State
v. Alves, No. A-5979-10 (App. Div. July 16, 2012), certif. denied, 213 N.J. 387
(2013); State v. Alves, No. A-6331-07 (App. Div. Apr. 19, 2010), certif. denied,
203 N.J. 440 (2010); State v. Alves, No. A-4355-00 (App. Div. Jan. 23, 2003),
certif. denied, 178 N.J. 455 (2004).
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six to forty-eight hours before the discovery of her body, i.e., on or about August

12 or 13.

      Defendant denied that he killed Lobo. He claimed he was with Lobo on

the morning of August 12, that they had both left the apartment, had stopped

together at a bakery, and then went off separately to their respective jobs.

      Defendant maintained he was in Portugal when Lobo was attacked. He

theorized the murderer could have been an intruder into the apartment, because

Lobo's pocketbook and keys were missing.

      Tried by a jury in 2001, defendant was found guilty of first-degree murder.

The trial court sentenced him to thirty years imprisonment with a thirty-year

period of parole ineligibility.

      After his conviction was affirmed on direct appeal and his first petition

for post-conviction relief ("PCR") was denied, defendant filed an application

with the trial court seeking post-conviction discovery of DNA evidence.

Eventually, the court granted defendant's request to have DNA testing

performed on several items from the crime scene, including a towel found at the

crime scene and fingernail clippings from both of Lobo's hands.

      The resulting DNA evidence from the towel and nail clippings revealed

that defendant's DNA was one of the two DNA profiles found in those items. In

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particular, defendant's Y-STR DNA profile matched the Y-STR profile under

both sets of Lobo's tested fingernails. 2 In addition, defendant's STR DNA

2
   Within the field of DNA science, the abbreviation "STR" stands for "short
tandem repeat." In State v. Deloatch, 354 N.J. Super. 76, 80 (App. Div. 2002),
we explained that in STR testing, "a very small piece of a substance (i.e. blood,
semen, etc.) is extracted and then, through a chemical process, visualized and
identified as human DNA."
      The National Institute of Justice has explained the significance of the term
"STR" and the related term pertinent to this case, "Y-STR," as follows:

                   Among the 3 million or so DNA bases that do not
            code for proteins are regions with multiple copies of
            short repeating sequences of these bases, which make
            up the DNA backbone. These sequences repeat a
            variable number of times in different individuals. Such
            regions are called "variable number short tandem
            repeats," and they are the basis of STR analysis. A
            collection of these can give nearly irrefutable evidence
            statistically of a person's identity because the likelihood
            of two unrelated people having the same number of
            repeated sequences in these regions becomes
            increasingly small as more regions are analyzed.

                  Autosomal chromosomes are those not involved
            in determining a person's gender, and STRs on these
            chromosomes are called autosomal STRs. Other STRs
            used for forensic purposes are called Y-STRs, which
            are derived solely from the male sex determining Y
            chromosome. Profiles based on autosomal STRs
            provide far stronger statistical power than profiles
            based on Y-STRs, because autosomal DNA is randomly
            exchanged between matched pairs of chromosomes in
            the process of making egg and sperm cells. . . . Profiles
            based on Y-STRs are statistically weaker because only

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profile matched the "minor" STR DNA profile under one of Lobo's hands. His

STR DNA profile was excluded, however, as a contributor to the "major" STR

DNA profile found under either hand.

      Other results obtained from the DNA testing were not of sufficient

quantity or quality, or both, to be compared with defendant's reference sample.

Further, no satisfactory reference sample of Lobo's own DNA was provided to

the laboratory.

      Defendant moved for a new trial, arguing that the DNA evidence

supported his theory of a third-party intruder and tended to exculpate him as the

assailant. The trial court conducted an evidentiary hearing to address the issues.

      Following the hearing, the trial court denied defendant's motion.

Specifically, the court concluded that defendant had not met the first or third

prongs of the standards for a new trial set forth in State v. Carter, 85 N.J. 300,

314 (1981), and State v. Peterson, 364 N.J. Super. 387, 398 (App. Div. 2003).

            males have a Y chromosome and all males get theirs
            from their fathers, so all males in any paternal line have
            nearly identical Y chromosomes. . . .

            [Nat'l Inst. of Just., What is STR Analysis?,
            NIJ.OJP.GOV (March 2, 2011), https://nij.ojp.gov/
            topics/articles/what-str-analysis (emphasis added).]

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Those standards focus on whether the newly discovered DNA evidence would

affect the jury's verdict, when compared with the State's proofs and the defense

presented at trial. The court held that the DNA evidence was insufficiently

exculpatory to warrant a new trial. This appeal ensued.

      In his brief on appeal, defendant presents the following argument:

             POINT I

             THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING
             DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL
             BASED ON NEWLY DISCOVERED DNA
             EVIDENCE.

      Our consideration of this argument is guided by well-established

principles. In order to obtain a new trial based upon a claim of newly discovered

evidence, a criminal defendant must establish several things.          Such newly

discovered evidence is sufficient to warrant a new trial only if it is: "(1) material

to the issue and not merely cumulative or impeaching or contradictory; (2)

discovered since the trial and not discoverable by reasonable diligence

beforehand; and (3) of the sort that would probably change the jury's verdict if

a new trial were granted." Carter, 85 N.J. at 314 (citing State v. Artis, 36 N.J.

538 (1962)); see also Peterson, 364 N.J. Super. at 398. All three prongs of the

Carter test must be satisfied to grant a new trial. 85 N.J. at 314.

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      Our scope of review of a determination of a motion for a new trial is

limited. Such a determination is committed to the "sound discretion of the trial

judge" and "will not be interfered with on appeal unless a clear abuse has been

shown." State v. Armour, 446 N.J. Super. 295, 306 (App. Div. 2016) (quoting

State v. Russo, 333 N.J. Super. 119, 137 (App. Div. 2000)); see also State v.

Fortin, 464 N.J. Super. 193, 216 (App. Div. 2020). The burden remains on the

defendant to establish each prong of the new trial standards. Fortin, 464 N.J.

Super. at 217 (citing State v. Smith, 29 N.J 561 (2017)).

      When the new trial motion is based, as here, upon post-verdict testing of

evidence, "even the most favorable retesting outcome . . . must be weighed

against the compelling proofs presented by the State." Armour, 446 N.J. Super.

at 313 (discussing new trial motion after retesting of DNA). "DNA test results

that not only tended to exculpate defendant but to implicate someone else would

be evidence of 'the sort that would probably change the jury’s verdict if a new

trial were granted.'" Peterson, 364 N.J. Super. at 398-99 (quoting Carter, 85 N.J.

at 314). The court has "to consider the evidential significance of whatever

'favorable' DNA test results were obtained in light of the overall trial record to

determine whether defendant was entitled to a new trial." Id. at 397.

      The trial court correctly applied these standards in considering defendant's

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motion and did not abuse its discretion in denying a new trial. We affirm,

substantially for the reasons articulated by the trial court in its detailed oral

opinion of February 14, 2022.

      The trial court held defendant failed to satisfy the first prong of the Carter

test because the "DNA results d[id] not exculpate defendant at all[, a]nd, in fact

provide[d] further evidence that he was the murderer." The court further noted

defendant had argued to the jury at trial his DNA would not be found under

Lobo's fingernails, yet the post-conviction testing revealed his DNA was found

under them.

      The trial court also underscored that the DNA evidence examined by the

forensics laboratory was not linked to "any third party." Hence, the DNA did

not implicate any other perpetrator of the killing and was "not of sufficient

weight that would alter the outcome of the verdict in a new trial."

      Additionally, the trial court found defendant had not met the third prong

of Carter. The court ruled the "DNA evidence would not have been likely to

change the outcome of the trial." The jury had convicted defendant without the

State presenting any inculpatory DNA evidence, thus allowing defendant to

argue, albeit unpersuasively, the absence of any such evidence. The court also

noted the jury had not been convinced by any of Alves's arguments during trial

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hypothesizing an unidentified third-party intruder.

      Evaluating the evidence as a whole, the trial court concluded that the

eyewitnesses, the State's medical examiner's testimony, and the conduct of

defendant "abscond[ing] to Portugal the day after the alleged murder" provided

ample grounds to convince the jury to convict. The court noted that, even if one

accepted the defense expert's alleged time frame for Lobo's death, "there's an

approximately [three-and-a-half] hour window" which "gave . . . defendant the

opportunity to murder [Lobo]."

      We endorse this sound reasoning. Defendant argues that the one "minor"

profile from Lobo's right fingernail clippings that matched his own was "not

inculpatory," because he and Lobo "were in a cohabitating romantic relationship

and had spent time together on the morning of August 12, 1999." He also

stresses that his DNA did not match the "major" STR DNA profiles obtained

from Lobo's fingernails.

      These arguments are insufficient to warrant a new trial. The presence of

any kind of match—major or minor—of defendant's DNA to the DNA under the

victim's fingernails does not exonerate defendant. Indeed, the finding conflicts

with his assertion at trial that none of his DNA would be found there .

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                                       9
      We recognize the DNA evidence does not show definitively the "major"

STR DNA profile is Lobo's. But that uncertainty is in all likelihood explained

by the lack of a reference sample of her DNA.

      Defendant further asserts that his paternal male relatives cannot be

excluded as potential contributors to the Y-STR DNA profiles found by the

testing. But there is no evidence from the trial that any of his paternal male

relatives resided in New Jersey in 1999, instead of in Portugal or elsewhere.

      We concur with the trial court's assessment of the strength of the State's

non-DNA proofs of guilt. The State's evidence included witness statements

attesting that Lobo was found in the same clothes she had been wearing on

August 11, that she failed to appear for work on August 12 or 13 without

providing notice, as was her custom, and the statement from a neighbor

regarding defendant's actions while in Portugal. The State further provided

evidence that no calls were made by defendant from Portugal to the apartment

between August 12 and 14. And, as we have noted, even the defense expert's

time frame allowed defendant the opportunity to commit the murder.

      In sum, the trial court was well within its "sound discretion" in denting

defendant's new trial motion. The DNA evidence was simply inadequate to

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                                      10
exonerate defendant or cast sufficient doubt upon the State's powerful evidence

of his guilt.

      Affirmed.

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