STATE OF NEW JERSEY v. JOSEPH L. CRANE

 

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-2174-01T42174-01T4

STATE OF NEW JERSEY,

Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.

JOSEPH L. CRANE,

Defendant-Appellant.

____________________________________

 

Submitted October 26, 2005 - Decided February 8, 2006

Before Judges Wecker and Graves.

On appeal from the Superior Court of New

Jersey, Law Division, Camden County,

2312-10-93-I, 3032-12-94-I, and 497-02-95-A.

Yvonne Smith Segars, Public Defender,

attorney for appellant (Arthur J. Owens,

Designated Counsel, on the brief).

Vincent P. Sarubbi, Camden County

Prosecutor, attorney for respondent

(Robin A. Hamett, Assistant Prosecutor,

of counsel and on the brief).

PER CURIAM

This is a post-conviction relief appeal. In February 1995, defendant failed to appear for trial and was re-arrested on a warrant. He retained private counsel within a few weeks of the rescheduled trial date. Defendant's newly-retained counsel renegotiated an earlier plea offer, and defendant entered guilty pleas on Accusation 497-02-95 to first-degree aggravated sexual assault, N.J.S.A. 2C:14-2a(1); on Indictment 3032-12-94 to third-degree burglary of a car, N.J.S.A. 2C:18-2; and on Indictment 2312-10-93 to second-degree attempted aggravated sexual assault, N.J.S.A. 2C:5-1 and 2C:14-2a(1). Defendant's motion to withdraw those pleas was denied on the sentencing date, and defendant was sentenced, in accordance with his plea agreement. He received a discretionary extended term of thirty years with a fifteen-year parole disqualifier on the aggravated sexual assault as a persistent offender; a consecutive five-year term with a two-and-one-half-year parole disqualifier on the burglary; and a concurrent ten-year term with a five-year parole disqualifier on the attempt. Defendant's aggregate sentence was thirty-five years, with a seventeen-and-one-half-year parole ineligibility term.

Defendant's convictions and sentence, and the denial of defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty pleas, were affirmed on direct appeal. State v. Joseph Crane, A-0827-95T4 (November 13, 1996). Certification was denied. 151 N.J. 466 (1997). Defendant filed this post-conviction relief motion, alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel, in January 1999. (Pa4). The sentencing judge conducted an evidentiary hearing on February 9, 2001, at which defendant's retained trial counsel testified. The judge placed his decision on the record on that date, and his reasons are clearly expressed and well supported.

The thrust of defendant's argument on this PCR motion, and on appeal, is that he never wanted to plead guilty and wanted to go to trial, but his attorney coerced his guilty plea. Defendant's retained counsel, a former public defender, testified that he inherited a completely prepared file from defendant's public defender and reviewed that file thoroughly. Nonetheless, defendant contends that retained counsel did not do enough to investigate potential witnesses. Defendant claims that there were witnesses, unidentified children, who could have supported defendant's contention that he was innocent because at about the time he was alleged to have committed aggravated sexual assault upon the seven-year-old child in the basement of a relative's house, other children saw him on the porch of that house. But defendant has never provided sufficient facts to permit identification of those witnesses, much less to establish any reasonable likelihood that they could and would have supported his defense.

Finally, defendant alleges ineffective assistance of PCR counsel. That claim has never been raised in the Law Division.

We affirm substantially for the reasons set forth in Judge David Eynon's well-reasoned decision. In that decision, which was placed on the record on February 9, 2001, the judge found that defendant did not meet the test of ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674 (1984), adopted by State v. Fritz, 105 N.J. 42, 58 (1987).

 
Affirmed.

The earlier offer was fifty years, the first twenty-five years without parole.

There has been a significant delay in calendaring this appeal, apparently because the record of the first part of the post-conviction relief hearing could not be found. We are satisfied, however, that the February 9 transcript includes a fair repetition or reconstruction of the prior testimony. Moreover, both the State and petitioner's counsel agree that is so, and defendant does not challenge the completeness of the record.

(continued)

(continued)

4

A-2174-01T4

RECORD IMPOUNDED

February 8, 2006