## Facts

- Richard R. Myers and his wife had a turbulent marriage marked by repeated quarrels, separations, and reconciliations.
- Five days before the killing, Myers’s wife left him.
- On April 8, 1950, Myers saw his wife enter a tavern with two men, became angry, summoned her outside, and struck her in the face.
- The wife fled toward the Jackson Street bridge over the Passaic River; Myers chased her, repeatedly hit her with his hands and fists, and continued the assault as she cried and asked him to stop.
- On the bridge, Myers threatened her and repeatedly ordered her to jump into the river or he would push her in.
- After the third command, the wife entered the river and cried for help; Myers knew she could not swim, did not attempt a rescue, watched her carried away, and left the scene.
- The wife drowned.
- Myers claimed she slipped or fell and asserted he intended only a “spanking” or “disciplinary dunking,” not death or serious harm.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence permitted a jury finding of malice and intent sufficient for first-degree murder when the victim entered the river after defendant’s assault and threats.
2. Whether the victim’s act of jumping into the river was a voluntary, superseding cause, or was legally attributable to defendant’s coercive conduct.
3. Whether the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the State’s case for insufficiency of proof of intent and causation.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed the first-degree murder conviction and life sentence.
- The court held the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find that Myers’s assaults and threats caused the victim to enter the river.
- The court held the victim’s act was not an independent superseding cause under the circumstances of terror created by defendant.
- The court held the proof permitted an inference of malice and intent from the prolonged assault, threats at a bridge above a river, knowledge of the victim’s inability to swim, and failure to rescue.
- The trial court properly denied the motion for acquittal because the case presented jury questions when the evidence was viewed most favorably to the State.

## Legal Principles

- A defendant may be held criminally responsible for homicide when the defendant’s violence and threats coerce a victim into self-endangering conduct that is a natural and probable response to the defendant’s wrongdoing.
- The victim’s self-endangering act does not break causation when it is compelled by fear and pressure created by the defendant rather than a free, independent decision.
- Malice and intent for murder may be inferred from circumstances, including the nature and continuation of an assault, threats directed at forcing perilous conduct, the defendant’s awareness of the victim’s vulnerability, and deliberate failure to prevent a foreseeable fatal outcome.
- On a motion for judgment of acquittal, the court must consider whether a reasonable jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt when the evidence is taken in the light most favorable to the prosecution.

## Conclusion

The court sustained Myers’s first-degree murder conviction because the evidence allowed the jury to find that his assaultive conduct and threats forced his wife into the river, making her drowning a foreseeable result attributable to him, and supported an inference of malice and intent.


State v. Myers, 7 N.J. 465, 81 A.2d 710 (N.J. 1951)