STATE OF NEW JERSEY v. JAYSON THOMPSON

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-0

STATE OF NEW JERSEY,

Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.

JAYSON THOMPSON,

Defendant-Appellant.

_______________________________

September 22, 2014

Submitted September 10, 2014 Decided

Before Judges Ashrafi and O'Connor.

On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Morris County, Indictment No. 04-06-0766.

Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney for appellant (Philip Lago, Designated Counsel, on the brief).

Fredric M. Knapp, Morris County Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Erin Smith Wisloff, Assistant Prosecutor, on the brief).

PER CURIAM

Defendant Jayson Thompson appeals from denial of his petition for post-conviction relief (PCR) alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm.

Defendant was convicted by a jury of first-degree carjacking, N.J.S.A. 2C:15-2(a)(2), two counts of first-degree robbery, N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1(a)(2), and related crimes.

The evidence at the trial showed that on August 20, 2003, defendant and his older cousin, Ryne Usher-Swift, traveled by train from East Orange to Roxbury to visit a friend. When they were unable to contact the friend, they instead robbed a man at gunpoint as he was leaving a bar at 11:00 p.m. The victim told the police that one of the men, later determined to be defendant, wore a blue bandana to conceal his face. The other man, Usher-Swift, wielded the gun as the victim entered his vehicle. Two fingerprints of defendant were lifted from the door of the vehicle, and he later admitted being present at the scene of the robbery.

After robbing the first victim, defendant and his cousin hid until the police activity subsided. At about 1:45 a.m., they carjacked a twenty-one-year-old woman at a traffic light as she was returning home from her boyfriend's house. They forced her at gunpoint to withdraw $20 from an ATM machine, and to drive them to Newark and East Orange. They took her wallet and cell phone and threatened to kill her if she went to the police, telling her they had her identification and knew her address.

After returning to her parents' home, the carjacking victim notified the police. Defendant and Usher-Swift were later arrested and indicted on sixteen counts arising from their crimes.

At his trial, defendant testified that his older cousin robbed the first victim alone and coerced him to participate in the carjacking and robbery of the second victim. The jury acquitted defendant on some counts of the indictment but found him guilty of carjacking and both armed robberies. On direct appeal, we affirmed defendant's conviction but remanded for resentencing. State v. Thompson, No. A-6473-04 (App. Div. Aug. 28, 2008). On remand, the trial court sentenced defendant to seventeen years in prison subject to the No Early Release Act, N.J.S.A. 2C:43-7.2.

On October 13, 2011, defendant filed a PCR petition alleging that his trial attorney was ineffective. He claimed his attorney performed deficiently in that he failed to consult a fingerprint expert for the purpose of explaining how his fingerprints may have been placed on the door of the first victim's vehicle, failed to make an argument to the jury explaining the fingerprint evidence, and failed to consult with him about whether he should testify after they learned that his cousin would not testify for the defense at defendant's trial. The trial court heard argument and denied defendant's PCR petition without holding an evidentiary hearing.

On appeal, defendant argues:

THE LOWER COURT ERRED IN FINDING THAT DEFENDANT'S CLAIMS DID NOT WARRANT AN EVIDENTIARY HEARING. THE LOWER COURT ORDER MUST THEREFORE BE REVERSED AND THIS MATTER MUST BE REMANDED FOR AN EVIDENTIARY HEARING.

Having reviewed the record, we conclude that defendant's argument is without sufficient merit to warrant discussion in a written opinion. R. 2:11-3(e)(2). We affirm denial of defendant's PCR petition for the reasons stated in the thorough written decision of Judge Thomas Manahan filed on December 20, 2012.

Affirmed.