Convicted Drug Dealer Loses Appeal

TRENTON — A man who pled guilty to charges of drug possession related to an incident in North Wildwood back in 2006 lost a recent appeal attempt.
Jamie Hayes, 33, who now resides in Northern State Prison, Newark, appealed the denial of his motions to suppress evidence and withdraw his guilty pleas in proceedings that occurred in 2007.
Appellate Judges Anthony Parrillo and Carmen Messano Dec. 18 affirmed the decision made Judge Carmen Alvarez to deny Hayes’ motions on both counts.
Hayes was arrested by Officer Paul Skill following a traffic stop for driving without his headlights on in North Wildwood at approximately 10:54 p.m. on Feb. 13, 2006. The stop occurred in the parking area of the age restricted complex at Seventh and New York avenues, Marina Bay Towers.
According to Skill, in the process of issuing the traffic summons, Hayes gave him an unbelievable story regarding his reason for stopping at Marina Bay. Skill then observed Hayes concealing a plastic bag of suspected crack cocaine in his sock. Skill seized the drugs and placed Hayes under arrest.
Hayes’ story differed from the officer’s and he asked the judge to suppress the evidence due to a faulty search.
Alvarez, however, found that Skill made a “plain view observation” of the cocaine so “there was no basis either in fact or in law to suppress the evidence,” according to the appellate court’s opinion.
The appeals judges cited a precedent, State v. Baum, which stated, “if during the course of the stop or as a result of reasonable inquiries initiated by the officer, the circumstances ‘give rise to circumstances unrelated to the traffic offense, and officer may broaden the inquiry and satisfy those suspicions.”
The first point of Hayes’ appeal was without merit, the court stated.
In the second point of his appeal, Hayes argued that he should have been permitted to retract his guilty plea to the charges.
According to the court, he contended that he was high on drugs on the day he pled guilty, that his attorney forced him to accept the plea bargain, and that he did not understand its terms. Judge Alvarez rejected all these arguments, and she sentenced defendant in accordance with the plea bargain.
In the appeal, Hayes said Alvarez should have granted his motion to withdraw those guilty pleas prior to his sentencing on May 25, 2007.
“We find no merit whatsoever to the contention,” the appeals court wrote.
“In short, the record does not demonstrate that the defendant’s free will was overborne; rather, the record reveals a manipulative defendant who took every opportunity to avoid either proceeding to trial or accepting the plea bargain offered by the State…Judge Alvarez did not mistakenly exercise her broad discretion by denying defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty pleas.”
Hayes is eligible for parole in June of next year and his max release date is Jan. 23, 2014.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com