State v. Loftin

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

GARIBALDI, J.

A jury convicted defendant, Donald Loftin, of the murder of Gary K. Marsh. At the penalty-phase hearing, a separately empanelled jury returned a death-penalty verdict, and the trial court sentenced defendant to death. Defendant appeals directly *318to this Court as of right. See Rule 2:2-l(a)(3). We affirm defendant’s conviction for murder and his sentence of death.

I

A. Guilt Phase

1. The crime

On May 5, 1992, Gary Marsh was working the midnight to six-thirty a.m. shift at an Exxon service station located on Alternate Route One in Lawreneeville,…