State v. Cordasco

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Wachenteld, J.

This is an appeal from a first-degree murder conviction returned without a recommendation for life imprisonment as allowed by statute, resulting in the death penalty.

The appellant, Ralph Cordaseo, shot and killed his estranged wife, firing five bullets into her body at a close range, estimated by a ballistics expert to be within a few inches. The main facts are amply proved and corroborated and indeed are not denied by the appellant, who admits firing the shots.

The tragedy occurred on Decmber 19, 1947, on North Seventh Street, Newark.…