STATE VS. THOMAS NEVIUS
A-5438-07T4
At
issue is the admissibility under N.J.R.E. 803(c)(25) (declarations against
interest) of an out-of-court statement by a defendant's non-testifying
confederate that supposedly implicated
the declarant in a felony murder and exculpated defendant by naming another as
the co-perpetrator of the crime.
We upheld the trial court's
exclusion of the statement, finding no abuse of discretion in the evidentiary
ruling or due process violation.
We concluded that the so-called inculpatory portion was actually
self-serving and unreliable as it tended to dilute or excuse the declarant's criminal
culpability by placing the blame on another. But even if considered self- incriminating, the so-called
exculpatory portion of the statement neither strengthened nor bolstered the
inculpatory effect of the declarant's allow it to be admissible. 06-18-12
