State v. McGuigan

313 A.3d 125

478 N.J.Super. 284

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.Shannon A. MCGUIGAN, Defendant-Appellant.

DOCKET NO. A-3224-21

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Argued March 6, 2024

Decided April 9, 2024

On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Burlington County, Indictment Nos. 19-07-0888 and 20-03-0306.

Samuel Clark Carrigan, Assistant Deputy Public Defender, argued the cause for appellant (Jennifer Nicole Sellitti, Public Defender, attorney; Samuel Clark Carrigan, of counsel and on the briefs).

Nicole Handy, Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for respondent (La Chia Lyn Bradshaw, Burlington County Prosecutor, attorney; Nicole Handy, of counsel and on the brief).

Before Judges Accurso, Vernoia, and Gummer.

₂₉₁The opinion of the court was delivered by

GUMMER, J.A.D.

After twice viewing a video recording of a police interrogation of defendant Shannon McGuigan and after the trial court barred in part the testimony of her expert witness, a jury convicted her of having committed a first-degree drug-induced death crime, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:35-9(a), along with other drug-related crimes. Defendant appeals from those convictions, arguing, among other things, that the interrogating detective had engaged in deceptive tactics that rendered her Miranda¹ waiver invalid and the trial court erred in admitting her statement to police and in limiting the testimony of her expert. Because the trial court did not conduct evidentiary hearings pursuant to N.J.R.E. 104, its admission of defendant’s statement was plain error and its limitation of the testimony of her expert witness was an abuse of discretion. Accordingly, we remand the case and direct the trial court to conduct evidentiary hearings regarding the voluntariness of defendant’s statement, the qualifications of her expert witness, and the admissibility of his opinions. As we explain in this opinion, whether defendant’s convictions are affirmed or whether she is entitled to a new trial depends on the outcomes of those hearings.

₂₉₂I.

After she woke up on the morning of May 30, 2017, Sheryl Maser went to her daughter Emily’s bedroom and found Emily dead.² The county medical examiner concluded Emily had died as the result of fentanyl and heroin toxicity. That fatal overdose was not Emily’s first experience with heroin.

According to data later extracted from one of Emily’s cell phones, Emily had sent a text message to a contact labeled "Shannon J.R." on May 12, 2017, to purchase twenty-dollars-worth of narcotics. On May 14, 2017, Emily again texted "Shannon J.R." to arrange a purchase of thirty-dollars-worth of heroin. Defendant testified at trial that J.R. was her friend and drug dealer. She assisted him in his drug-dealing efforts by giving him rides; she received drugs in return. Defendant first met Emily about three months before her death when she drove J.R. to meet Emily so he could sell her drugs. Defendant was involved in selling heroin to Emily approximately three times. J.R. was jailed sometime in May 2017. Defendant admitted at trial she had sold and used the heroin he had left behind.

On May 19, 2017, Sheryl called 9-1-1 and reported she had found drug paraphernalia in the house she shared with Emily and that Emily was home and had active arrest warrants. After Sheryl allowed him to enter the house, police patrolman Joshua Danka found Emily in her bedroom. Danka arrested Emily and seized approximately fifty empty wax paper folds, a glass smoking pipe, about thirty-five pills, and approximately thirty hypodermic syringes, all left out in plain view. He did not look under the bed. Detective Sergeant Brian Smith testified at trial wax paper packets are a common form of packaging for narcotics sold individually or on the street.

₂₉₃According to Sheryl, the police took what drug paraphernalia "they could see." After Emily’s arrest, Sheryl cleaned Emily’s bedroom, throwing out other wrappers and "[a]nything else [she] could find." Sheryl did not clean under Emily’s bed, but she "moved the bed and cleaned around it." Following her arrest on May 19, 2017, Emily remained in jail for the next eight days.

Kyle Potts, Emily’s boyfriend, picked Emily up from jail on May 27, 2017, after another friend had posted her bail. They eventually went to a party with Emily’s parents at a friend’s farm and then spent the night at Potts’s house. Potts did not witness Emily consume any drugs at the party or that night.

According to data extracted from Emily’s cell phone, Emily texted defendant the next day at 4:22 a.m.: "Hey, it’s Emily. Sorry so early. Gotta sneak shit. Is J.R. still locked up? Text this number now or Fa[c]ebook Emily Maser. I need shit." Emily next texted, "But I got 40." Defendant responded, saying J.R. was "still locked up and no one knows when he’s getting out." A few minutes later, defendant texted Emily: "If you got a ride out here, I’ll serve you, but there’s no way in hell I’m driving out to [Presidential Lakes] at 6 a.m. for $40." Emily texted her, "I need the D.," which according to Detective Smith meant "dope," a word used interchangeably with heroin. Emily asked defendant if she would "come serve [her]?" Throughout the day, Emily repeatedly asked defendant to meet her, and defendant eventually agreed. Emily confirmed she had $40, provided her home address, and asked defendant if she could "do eight"; defendant responded that she could do "seven."

At trial, defendant admitted she and Emily had been "texting back and forth all day" on May 28, 2017, and had agreed she would sell Emily seven bags of heroin for $40. After taking Emily to her friend’s house so she could repay the bail money, Potts dropped Emily off at her home at about 3:00 p.m. Defendant met Emily at about 6:00 p.m. at a park near Emily’s home to sell her the heroin. According to defendant, the bags of heroin she sold to Emily had a gecko stamp on them.

₂₉₄Potts returned to Emily’s house at around 7:00 p.m. After driving with Emily to a nearby Wawa convenience store to purchase food, Potts returned Emily to her home and left at about 2:45 a.m. on May 29, 2017. During their time together that night, he did not see Emily take drugs.

Sometime after 6:00 p.m. on May 29, 2017, Sheryl returned home. When she arrived, Emily was home alone, in her room. Sheryl saw Emily at about 11:00 p.m., when Emily came out of her room to ask for a cigarette. That was the last time Sheryl saw Emily before finding her in her bed the next morning.

After she saw Emily’s body, Sheryl called 9-1-1. Officer Danka met Sheryl outside the house. Sheryl pointed to an upstairs bedroom. Danka entered the house, went to the bedroom, and saw Emily’s body. Paramedics, other patrolmen, and Detective Smith arrived on the scene. The paramedics confirmed Emily did not have a pulse.

Smith found a Motorola cell phone in Emily’s hand, an Apple iPhone on her windowsill, and an LG cell phone - with Emily’s name on the back - atop her dresser. Sheryl confirmed she had seen her daughter use both the Motorola and LG cell phones. Detective Smith sent the Motorola and LG to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office High-Tech Crimes Unit for data extraction. From the results of a subpoena issued to Verizon, Detective Smith determined that one number in Emily’s contact list, labelled as both "J.R. Shannon" and "Shannon J.R.," belonged to defendant.

Detective Smith found syringes on Emily’s windowsill. He also found a variety of wax paper folds scattered around Emily’s room. He found one used, white, unstamped fold near Emily’s arm; two used, white, unstamped folds underneath Emily’s body; and four white, unstamped folds on a glass tray near her body. In a box underneath Emily’s bed, he found several folds with a blue gecko stamp, a red Snapchat stamp, or "some sort of red mark" and several unstamped folds. Near Emily’s dresser, he found one fold ₂₉₅with a green dragon stamp in a yellow basket and one fold with a "Grand Theft" blue stamp atop her dresser.

Detective Smith did not send any of the wax paper folds found underneath Emily’s bed or near her dresser for testing because they "didn’t appear to contain any substance." In July 2017, he sent one of the white, unstamped folds found near Emily’s body to National Medical Services (NMS), which tested it and found its contents positive for heroin, fentanyl, and quinine. Two years later, in September 2019, Detective Smith sent two more bags, also white, unstamped, and found near Emily’s body; they tested positive for heroin, fentanyl, and trace amounts of quinine.

Susan Crookham, a scientist employed by NMS, analyzed results of tests NMS had performed on Emily’s urine and confirmed it had contained nordiazepam, morphine, fentanyl, norfentanyl, opiates, benzodiazepines, cannabinoids, and 6-monoacetylmorphine, which is indicative of heroin use. Dr. Ian Hood, who was the county medical examiner, concluded Emily had died from heroin and fentanyl toxicity likely within an hour from the time she was last seen alive on May 29, 2017. Dr. Hood testified that it is "a very common scenario … where people have just gotten out of jail … lost their tolerance. That takes one to two weeks. And then they get out and they go and take the same old dose they were used to and they immediately die."

On November 17, 2017, approximately five and one-half months after Emily’s death, Detective Smith conducted an interrogation of defendant at the police department.³ Smith testified he had read defendant her Miranda rights before she spoke with him. In fact, he had asked defendant several questions before he advised her of her rights, including the following questions about her cell phone:

Det. Sgt. Smith: … How about a cell phone number for you?

[Defendant]: (XXX) XXX-XXXX.

Det. Sgt. Smith: What carrier is that?

Sprint? Metro? T -

[Defendant]: … Verizon.

₂₉₆Det. Sgt. Smith: Verizon? How long have you had that phone number?

[Defendant]: Ever since I had a cell phone.

...