A Jersey City man convicted of a 1993 double murder and who has been an inmate at New Jersey State Prison since 1994 will get a new trial after the New Jersey Supreme Court vacated his conviction last week.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
In August 1993, Wilbert Hannah, 53, and William LaCue were indicted for murder and other offenses for the fatal shootings of Angel Salazar and Luis Flores in a parked car, according to the court’s August 18th 79-page ruling, which was 4-3.
Chief Justices Stuart Rabner, Jaynee LaVecchia, Fabiana Pierre-Louis joined in Justice Barry Albin’s concurring opinion, while Chief Justice Lee Solomon filed in dissent and was joined by Chief Justices Anne Patterson and Faustino Fernandez-Vina.
“The central pillar of the State’s case was the testimony of LaCue. As part of a cooperation agreement with the State, LaCue gave three recorded statements to the police. In the first two, he told the police that he alone killed Salazar and Flores,” the Supreme Court’s decision says.
“In his third statement and again later in his trial testimony, LaCue stated that Hannah, who was also known by the name of Rabb, shot Salazar from the front passenger seat.”
The court goes on to explain that the errors made in this case “constitute a fundamental injustice that denied Hannah a fair trial,” noting that Hannah was denied an opportunity to present a full defense for the jury.
“The passage of time alone cannot bar relief to a defendant deprived of a fair trial,” the ruling states.
After Hannah lost an initial appeal, he filed for post-conviction relief four times, with the most recent evidentiary hearing taking place in August 2018.
The appellate court ruled that Hannah had not presented enough evidence for a new trial, but the Supreme Court disagrees.
“A defendant has a constitutional right to present a complete defense, including the
right to introduce evidence of third-party guilt. In this case, defense counsel’s trial
strategy was to advance an effective and credible third-party-guilt defense that Thomas —
not Hannah — committed the crime,” the decision reads.
“The success of that trial strategy required counsel merely to raise a reasonable doubt about Hannah’s guilt. Third-party-guilt evidence is admissible so long as the proof offered has a rational tendency to engender a reasonable doubt with respect to an essential feature of the State’s case, and third-party statements against penal interest are generally admissible where the proffered evidence draws a direct connection between the third party and the commission of the crime.”
They outline certain instances of this, for example, a six-page report prepared by then-Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Lt. Charles Redd indicated that a car pager number listed as Rabb was actually Thomas’ number.
Simply referred to as the “Redd Report,” this piece of evidence was never presented before the jury.
“This remedy may come late for Hannah, who was convicted twenty-seven years ago and has been toiling through the post-conviction relief process for fourteen years – but it would be a far greater injustice if it never came at all,” the concurring opinion concludes.
However, Solomon’s dissenting opinion believes that one cannot believe that the presentation of the Redd Report could be reasonably expected to change the trial’s outcome.
“Other evidence included the numerous nine and ten-millimeter shell casings found within the vehicle; LaCue’s testimony that he and defendant used nine and ten-millimeter handguns to carry out the killings and that defendant was worried he may have left a soda can with his prints in the victims’ car; Hazel’s testimony that defendant admitted to killing Fred; defendant’s flight to Florida after the killings; Mark LaCue’s testimony that his brother and someone named Rabb had ‘shot some Puerto Ricans;’ and the red can of soda found inside the victims’ vehicle,” he wrote.
“The jury heard that evidence, made its credibility determinations, and found defendant guilty. We fail to see how the Redd Report could have changed the trial outcome in any
way other than further confirming defendant’s role in the death of Salazar and Flores.”
According to the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Hannah has been incarcerated at New Jersey State Prison since November 18th, 1994 and would not have been eligible for parole until June 29th, 2053 – when he would be 85 years old.
