Testimony from Jody Ann Scharf's friends and therapist that she was afraid of her husband were appropriate for trial, the court ruled.
TRENTON -- The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that a man convicted of pushing his wife down the cliffs of the Palisades in 1992 is not entitled to a new trial.
The court ruled that hearsay statements by Stephen Scharf's wife, Jody Ann Scharf, to her friends and therapist were admissible in his trial, overturning an appellate court that found the "expressions of fear" were irrelevant and prejudicial.
Bergen County Authorities eventually accused Stephen Scharf of pushing his wife to her death 16 years after the fall. Jody Ann Scharf had filed for divorce two weeks before.
Scharf was found guilty in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison, though he has maintained that the death was accidental.
Stephen Scharf, seen here in a Department of Corrections photo. He has said the couple stopped at the Palisades cliffs for a picnic, where Jody Ann Scharf drank some wine coolers. While he got up to get a blanket from the car, he said he saw her rise, stumble and disappear below the cliffs.
With the help of a cold case team, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office in 2008 brought the case before a grand jury and he was indicted in 2009. At trial, prosecutors said the couple had a troubled marriage and painted Stephen Scharf as a cheating, abusive husband who had taken out a life insurance policy on his wife in the months before she died and was enraged when she filed for divorce.
Authorities said her body, which was found 50 feet from the base of the cliff, must have been pushed.
Friends and a therapist testified that Jody Ann Scharf feared her husband and that she worried about his behavior before her death.
A jury convicted Scharf of murder in 2011, but the appeals panel found the hearsay testimony "simply does not make it more or less likely that, once having gone to the Englewood Cliffs with defendant, while she was under the influence of alcohol, an accident could not have occurred."
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The Supreme Court heard arguments in February to determine if testimony from Jody Ann Scharf's friends and therapist should have been allowed.
"State-of-mind evidence bears on how Jody likely acted on the night of her death," the court said in a 6-0 decision. "Ultimately, the inferences concerning how Jody's state of mind affected her conduct were for the jury to draw."
Stephen Scharf's public defender declined to comment.
NJ Advance Media reporter S.P. Sullivan contributed to this report.
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.