STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. QUINTIN D. WATSON (18-02-0234, MIDDLESEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (A-0235-19)
The court affirms defendant's jury trial conviction for second-degree robbery of a bank. The court first addresses defendant's contention that the trial judge erred by permitting the jury to hear testimony that the investigating police officer had been contacted by and "consulted" with another police department immediately before filing criminal charges. Defendant contends that such testimony violated the Confrontation Clause. After reviewing New Jersey's Confrontation Clause case law, the court concludes that the police officer's brief answer to the prosecutor's leading question concerning the consultation with the other police department violated defendant's Sixth Amendment rights because it created an inescapable inference that the other department possessed and shared incriminating evidence about the current offense that was not presented to the jury. The court nonetheless concludes that the constitutional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court next addresses defendant's contention that the trial judge abused his discretion by allowing a police witness to narrate surveillance video as it was being played to the jury. The court surveys the law in New Jersey explaining when a police witness may offer a lay opinion. The court also surveys cases in other jurisdictions that specifically address the admissibility of video narration testimony. The court declines to adopt a rule that would categorically prohibit such testimony, holding instead that a trial court has discretion to permit a witness to offer descriptive comments while a video is being played if the court finds that those specific comments would be helpful to the jury. To assist trial judges in making that determination, the court compiles a list of six factors to consider. In this instance, the court declines to second-guess the trial judge's rulings that sustained some objections to the video narration testimony and overruled others.
The court notes that the use of surveillance video evidence at trial is becoming more common because of the proliferation of government, commercial, and residential surveillance cameras. To improve the process by which the admissibility of police narration testimony is determined, the court recommends a new practice and procedure whereby the trial judge would conduct an in limine hearing when the prosecutor intends to present narration testimony in conjunction with playing a video to the jury. At that hearing, the court should rule upon the specific narration comments that will be permitted and those that will be foreclosed, providing clear instructions for the witness to follow. That in limine procedure would obviate the need for a series of spontaneous objections in the presence of the jury.
The court also notes that there presently is no model jury instruction pertaining to lay opinion testimony. The court recommends that the Model Jury Charge Committee consider whether it would be appropriate to draft a model instruction specifically tailored to address video narration testimony.
The court next considers defendant's contention, raised for the first time on appeal, that the trial court erred by allowing the bank teller to make an in-court identification after having selected the photograph of another person from a photo array. After reviewing the foundational principles that undergird New Jersey's eyewitness identification jurisprudence, the court rejects defendant's request to categorically ban "first-time" in-court identifications. The court declines to impose new bright-line preconditions on when an eyewitness may identify the perpetrator at trial. Rather, the court retains the rule that the decision to allow an in-court identification is made on a case-by-case basis, mindful that suppression of identification testimony is rarely warranted and that the reliability of an identification and the weight to give to it is generally for the jury to decide with the benefit of cross-examination and appropriate jury instructions.
The court also addresses defendant's contention that the trial court should have revised the model jury charge sua sponte to explain the inherent suggestiveness of the in-court identification procedure. The court concludes that the trial judge did not commit plain error by relying on the current model jury charge. The court acknowledges, however, that the time has come to reexamine that instruction. After reviewing the case law and scientific literature, the court accepts that the inherent suggestiveness of in-court identifications is comparable to the suggestiveness of one-on-one show-up identifications. And yet, the court notes, the model jury instructions pertaining to in-court identifications are less detailed and precise than the model instruction that explains the risk of misidentification in a show-up procedure. The court recommends that the Model Jury Charge Committee consider revising the model instruction pertaining to in-court identifications, for example, by incorporating language currently used to explain the suggestiveness of one-on-one show-up identifications.
