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Those were the words that completely changed the direction of a Burlington County murder case dating back to 2017, giving the defendant an entirely new third trial.
The comment made to the judge led a New Jersey Appeals Court to overturn the murder conviction for 28-year-old Douglas Lewis in the shooting death of 24-year-old Shaquille Williams.
The jurors were being polled on the outcome of the conviction when Juror No. 7 made the remark, paperwork details.
The trial court judge, however, never asked why the juror added the comment and should have, the Appeals Court said in a March 7 decision.
"Given the record and the constitutional issues at stake, to eliminate any doubt as to the unanimity of the verdict, we are constrained to vacate the conviction and remand for a new trial," the court said in papers obtained by Daily Voice.
In his courtroom remarks, the trial judge had said: "As we all heard, candidly very unique and unexpected, that's something that happens with jurors in trials and the like, that one of the jurors in being polled said, 'regrettably, I agree.'"
"The Court respectfully declined to address (the juror), feeling and believing that it would have been inappropriate delving into the deliberations of the jury," the trial court judge said.
The Appeals Court thought otherwise.
Joel Bewley, a spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office, said: "We plan to appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court."
The prosecutor’s office charged Lewis and another man with killing Williams whose body was found by police slumped behind the wheel of a car on Kinsley Road. Lewis insisted that he was on his cousin’s porch during the shooting and not near the crime scene.
Lewis had faced 58 years in New Jersey State Prison including 48 for the murder conviction.
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