Man will be resentenced over trial judge's comments in unrelated case
A New Jersey man convicted of murdering his girlfriend must be resentenced because of comments the trial court judge made in another case, a state appeals court has held.
The appeals court said Thursday that the judge’s comments “deprived” them of confidence that the judge sentenced the man in accordance with court directives, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports.
Lamont Richardson of Trenton was convicted in 2012 of strangling his former girlfriend to death in 2009. The couple’s 8-month-old daughter was left unattended with the body after the killing. Richardson was sentenced by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier to 60 years in prison.
During Richardson’s appeal, his lawyer presented the appeals court with a transcript from another case in which Billmeier said he “always give(s) defendants convicted by a jury a minimum of 60 years” in prison.
In its decision, the state appellate court said it would have affirmed Richardson’s sentence had the statement not been made.
“We cannot, however, ignore the judge’s own statement in open court, which suggests strongly that he may not undertake the ‘individualized consideration during sentencing’ to which each defendant is entitled,” it said.
The appeals court also found that Billmeier had erred by admitting certain testimony, but said that taken as a whole the testimony had not deprived Richardson of a fair trial.
A spokeswoman for the state judiciary returned a call to Billmeier, saying judges are precluded from commenting publicly on cases, the Star-Ledger reports.
