STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. JOEY J. FOWLER
STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. JAMIL L. HEARNS
A-3393-14T3/A-4789-14T3(CONSOLIDATED)
The court remanded for a new trial a criminal matter in which the jury was instructed only as to murder, N.J.S.A. 2C:11 3(a)(1). One of two co-defendants testified at trial that he unwittingly killed the victim while struggling to take a gun away from someone——not the victim——who was trying to shoot him. He was convicted of murder, and his co-defendant was also convicted of murder as his accomplice. The court concluded the jury should have also been given a molded self-defense instruction, N.J.S.A. 2C:3-4(a), and been instructed as to the lesser-includeds of aggravated manslaughter, N.J.S.A. 2C:11 4(a)(1), and manslaughter, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-4(b)(1). The failure to do so prejudiced defendants' rights to a fair trial.
