State v. Chew

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

This is a capital murder case. A jury has found defendant John Chew guilty of murdering his former companion in order to obtain insurance proceeds on her life. Major issues raised in his appeal are: (1) whether the statutory aggravating factor, N.J.S.A 2C:11-3 c(4)(d), which makes death-eligible a “murder as consideration for the receipt, or in expectation of the receipt of anything of pecuniary value,” only covers contract killings and not killings to obtain insurance proceeds; (2) whether statements taken by police after defendant had asked…