TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The New Jersey Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of fatally shooting a teen in a park, saying Pennsylvania detectives had violated his rights while questioning him about an unrelated homicide in that state.
The high court ruled last week that an alleged comment by 30-year-old Laurie Wint - “In June 2011, I committed a murder in Camden” - was improperly allowed at his trial in the slaying of 19-year-old Kevin Miller.
Wint was convicted in 2014 of the lesser offense of passion/provocation manslaughter and related charges. Prosecutors said Miller found out that Wink had spent the day with a woman he was dating, and he was shot after a confrontation in a Camden park. He argued he fired in self-defense.
While in custody awaiting indictment in Miller’s death, Wint was also facing charges for the stabbing death of 33-year-old Tyrone Newman in Warminster, Pennsylvania. Detectives sought to question him at the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.
Two New Jersey detectives first asked him about Miller’s death, and Wint declined to answer questions before speaking to a lawyer. The detectives left the room.
Two Pennsylvania detectives then came in to ask questions about the Warminster stabbing, at which point Wint made the statement about the 2011 Camden slaying. The New Jersey Supreme Court said detectives’ continued questioning violated Wint’s rights. The order of a retrial in the passion/provocation charge doesn’t affect weapons and resisting arrest convictions in the same trial.
Wint was sentenced to 22 years, including 14 years for the New Jersey homicide, a term that was to run consecutive to a 12- to 25-year term in Pennsylvania imposed after he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in Newman’s slaying.
Camden County prosecutors are reviewing the decision with the state attorney general’s office, which handled the appeal, and considering their options, a spokeswoman said.
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