The 2019 murder conviction of a Jersey City man has been thrown out by an appeal court that ruled police violated his constitutional rights during an interrogation.
Jeffrey T. Harley had been serving life in prison without parole in the 2016 killing of his 81-year-old neighbor, Lucila Cardenas Viejo, in her apartment.
He was also sentenced to more than 30 additional years for related charges, including armed robbery and burglary.
In a decision issued Wednesday, the Appellate Division found that detectives from the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office failed to inform Harley of his Miranda rights to an attorney and remain silent before he was questioned on Feb. 8, 2016, two days after the murder.
“We reverse the conviction because investigating police unconstitutionally obtained incriminating statements from defendant during what we conclude was a custodial interrogation that required Miranda warnings,” the three-judge panel wrote.
The court determined that Harley was effectively in custody during the interview.
He was taken to the prosecutor’s office, questioned in a closed room by two detectives, placed under oath, shown surveillance footage and confronted with inconsistencies in his story.
At no point was he told he was free to leave or advised of his rights, according to the ruling.
Although Harley never confessed, prosecutors used his denials and contradictions to argue he was lying, and therefore guilty.
In closing arguments, the prosecution told jurors, “If he lied, he is guilty.”
The court found this reliance on Harley’s statements unfairly influenced the jury.
Jurors requested to rewatch the Feb. 8 interview during deliberations and returned a guilty verdict the next day.
Harley’s first trial in 2018 ended in a hung jury. At his second trial in 2019, he was convicted of murder and multiple related charges.
The appeals court upheld the trial court’s decisions on other issues, including witness identifications, but ruled that the Miranda violation alone warranted a new trial.
Assistant Deputy Public Defender Daniel Rockoff represented Harley.
“We’re gratified that the Appellate Division recognized a need for a new trial,” Rockoff said in a statement.
“As the Appellate Division correctly found, the State failed to abide by the settled law ofMiranda v. Arizona, which safeguards a person’s constitutional rights during police questioning," Rockoff said. “To quote the Appellate Division, ‘the constitutional rights at stake are too important to overlook.’”
The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on the case.