Beating death conviction, 22-year sentence tossed over improper search

A New Jersey man sentenced to 22 years in prison for the beating death of another man in Union County in 2016 could walk free after an appeals court ruled Wednesday that police unlawfully searched his possessions.

Yves Marcellus pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in the death of Matthew Murrell in Union Township. Murrell’s body was found by the side of a house on the morning after a Fourth of July party.

Marcellus, who wasn’t eligible for parole until 2035, won’t be released as a result of the ruling, according to the state public defender’s office, which represented him on appeal.

The Union County Prosecutor’s Office, which prosecuted Marcellus, did not immediately comment Wednesday on the ruling or whether it planned to pursue a retrial.

On the morning after a Fourth of July party in 2016, the victim’s body was found by the side of a house. After questioning Marcellus, police sought permission to search a house owned by his aunt where he had stayed previously. They conducted a warrantless search of a room in the house being rented at the time by Marcellus’s mother.

The search was complicated by the fact that Marcellus’s mother speaks Creole, which the officers did not speak or understand. She eventually led police to an opaque bag and shoebox in her room that contained Marcellus’s clothes and sneakers.

In its ruling Wednesday, the court acknowledged that while arguments in the appeal have focused on whether Marcellus’s aunt could consent to the search of his mother’s room, the central issue was whether either woman had the authority to consent to the search of the bag and shoebox.

Marcellus had an expectation of privacy even though his possessions were in a location owned by someone else, the court ruled. The ruling suppressed the evidence from the bag and shoebox and allowed Marcellus to withdraw his guilty plea.

“It would not have been objectively reasonable for police to believe that either defendant’s aunt or defendant’s mother, neither of whom ever claimed ownership of the bag, the shoebox or their contents, had the authority to permit a search into them,” the court wrote.