STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. WALTER A. TORMASI
A-3830-13T4
Defendant, convicted of his mother's 1996 murder, filed in
2011 a post-conviction relief petition based on an incomplete
affidavit purporting to contain his father's acknowledgement
that he, not defendant, was responsible for the murder; this
thirty-eight-page document was discovered by defendant's brother
shortly after the father's death in 2010. The PCR judge
conducted a testimonial hearing limited solely to the
admissibility of the document; defendant's siblings testified
they had seen the complete document, with a signed and notarized
thirty-ninth page years earlier. The PCR judge concluded —
without opining on the siblings' credibility — that the document
was inadmissible because it was neither handwritten, signed, nor
capable of being authenticated. The court reversed, holding
that, even though incomplete, the document was admissible
pursuant to N.J.R.E. 803(c)(25) and capable of being
authenticated pursuant to N.J.R.E. 901. The court remanded for
consideration of the witnesses' credibility and the other
factors relevant to claims of newly-discovered evidence. 
