TRENTON – A convicted murderer will continue to serve double life sentences for the savage 1996 beating and robbery of a Wildwood bartender and the slaying of a bar patron, after an appellate court panel rejected his latest application for post-conviction relief.
John Wesley Poteat, 62, has filed numerous legal documents from behind bars, seeking relief since his conviction in 1997, all of which have been denied by state and federal courts.
Poteat and an accomplice, Frederick Simmons, were convicted of felony murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and other charges after the two entered Wildwood’s Firehouse Tavern in the early morning hours of May 10, 1996, and robbed the place, leaving with $700 and a six pack of beer.
During the robbery, Poteat brutally beat the bartender with a club, and Simmons fatally stabbed the lone patron, who reportedly recognized him, multiple times in the neck. Both men fled but were arrested hours later by local law enforcement. Simmons was also convicted and sentenced to life behind bars.
In his fifth and latest application for post-conviction relief, Poteat argued that his attorney failed to appeal the denial of his first relief petition even though Poteat requested an appeal. However, a lower court judge found Poteat’s argument unpersuasive and said that he cannot use his fifth petition as a substitute for an appeal of his first petition.
In a decision issued Tuesday, Oct. 10, a state appellate court panel affirmed the lower court’s ruling that Poteat’s latest petition is time-barred. Poteat has known since 2008 that no appeal was filed and did not address the issue in his second petition, which he filed in 2014.
In the written opinion, the appellate panel states that Poteat’s contentions “lack sufficient merit to warrant extended discussion in a written opinion.”
He remains at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton and is not eligible for parole until November 2062, when he would be 101 years old.
Contact the author, Shay Roddy, at sroddy@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 142.
