Mansfield, NJ: Morrisville man who killed pregnant, 'evil' girlfriend in Burlco has conviction tossed

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

By ARTEMIS COUGHLAN
acoughlan@trentonian.com

TRENTON — The murder conviction for a Morrisville, Pa., man who admitted he shot and stabbed his pregnant girlfriend was thrown out by an appellate court and sent down for a new trial because the judge erred in jury instructions, the court announced in its decision today.

Boyce Singleton Jr., 40, was sentenced to 55 years in prison in September 2008 for the Sept. 13, 2005, murder of Michelle Cazan, 38, in their Mansfield home, by Burlington County Superior Court Judge Patricia R. LeBon.

Singleton put on an insanity defense during the trial and claimed that he killed her because God told him to do it as she would not follow his religious beliefs and said she was “evil.”

The defendant admitted he shot her four times and then stabbed her four times with a butterfly knife when the victim refused to give him her car keys, according to court documents.

He had moved into the woman’s Mansfield home on July 2008 and the two soon after started a dating relationship.

The victim the day before the murder had told the defendant that she was pregnant with his child, according to the documents.

Earlier in the day of the murder the two had been arguing as they were driving around the Trenton area and the defendant said “he saw Michelle as a prostitute, meaning that she was prostituting herself to another God, and exclaimed he didn’t trust her and didn’t want to be around her or with her anymore.”

Several family members and doctors testified at trial that the defendant was delusional and suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

One doctor testified that “the defendant was not capable of recognizing that what he did was wrong, but, in fact, he believed that he was right and ...being compelled to do this by God and therefore he had to obey that belief.”

The defendant argued that LeBon’s instructions to the jury as to his insanity defense were incomplete and didn’t explain the nuances of his insanity defense to jurors because the testimony supported his claims that he got orders to kill from God.

The appellate court agreed with the defendant “we reverse and remand for a new trial due to the judge’s failure to give amplified instruction required.”