## Facts

- Newark police responded to an apartment at 316 Norfolk Street on September 2, 1962, and found Aaron R. Rudesel dead.
- Rudesel died from a single stab wound to the chest and also had additional superficial stab and cutting wounds.
- Dollie Fair rented a room in the apartment and lived there with Rudesel.
- After drinking and an altercation involving Fair and Rudesel, a disturbance occurred in the kitchen; an eyewitness saw a man known as “Jake” leaving immediately afterward and found Rudesel bleeding.
- “Jake” was identified as John B. Lynn, who was later located and arrested at or near his residence at 291 Norfolk Street based on information obtained shortly after the homicide.
- Fair and Lynn were jointly indicted for murder and tried together; the jury found Lynn guilty of second-degree murder and Fair guilty of manslaughter.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court committed reversible error by failing to instruct the jury on Lynn’s right to use force in defense of Fair.
2. Whether the “alter ego” rule governs defense of others, or whether the intervenor’s liability turns on a reasonable belief in the need to protect another.
3. Whether evidence obtained in connection with Lynn’s arrest should have been suppressed as the product of an unlawful arrest or unlawful search incident to arrest.
4. Whether different verdicts for co-defendants in a joint trial required reversal as inconsistent.

## Decision

- Lynn’s conviction was reversed and remanded because the jury was not adequately instructed on defense of others, which was a central theory supported by the evidence.
- The court rejected the “alter ego” rule and held that an intervenor may act on a reasonable belief that force is necessary to protect another.
- The court upheld the legality of Lynn’s arrest, finding probable cause and no basis for suppression of evidence obtained incident to that arrest.
- Fair’s manslaughter conviction was affirmed because the instructional error concerned Lynn’s defense theory and did not warrant reversal as to Fair.
- The court held that differing verdicts for co-defendants in a joint trial are permissible when supported by the evidence and proper instructions.

## Legal Principles

- Defense of others is assessed under a reasonable-belief standard: an intervenor is justified if he reasonably believes force is necessary to protect another, even if that belief is mistaken.
- The “alter ego” doctrine is rejected; the intervenor does not lose the defense solely because the person aided lacked an actual right of self-defense.
- When the evidence fairly raises defense of others, the trial court must instruct the jury clearly on that defense; omission may constitute plain error where it removes a principal defense from consideration.
- Probable cause supports a warrantless arrest, and a search incident to a lawful arrest may permit seizure of relevant evidence without suppression.
- Co-defendants may receive different verdicts in a joint trial without legal inconsistency if the jury could rationally distinguish culpability based on role, mental state, and proof.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed Fair’s manslaughter conviction but reversed Lynn’s murder conviction because the jury was not instructed on defense of others; it adopted a reasonable-belief test for third-party intervention and rejected the alter-ego rule while upholding the arrest and related evidentiary rulings.


State v. Fair, 45 N.J. 77, 211 A.2d 359 (N.J. 1965)