By Ben Horowitz
The Star-Ledger
February 8, 2011
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/janitor_accused_of_killing_cha.html
 |
| Jose Feliciano, seated, of Easton, Pa., former Custodian of St. Patrick Church in Chatham, appears in Superior Court, Morristown, for a status conference hearing on charges that he murdered Rev. Edward Hinds in the church rectory in October. Morristown, NJ Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger |
In an interview with an investigator two days after the Rev. Edward Hinds was stabbed to death, his accused assailant, Jose Feliciano, detailed his account of his relationship with the Chatham priest and told police he wound up killing him, according to a transcript.
Feliciano said Hinds had initiated a sexual relationship with him four years earlier and he was trying to end it, Feliciano said in the interview on Oct. 24, 2009 with Capt. Jeffrey Paul of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
Hinds said he would fire him if he ended the relationship and Feliciano said he stabbed him as a result, the transcript says. Feliciano, 65, of Easton, Pa. is accused of murder.
Paul conducted a daylong interview with Feliciano at Morristown Memorial Hospital. An audio portion that began the interview was played in Superior Court in Morristown this morning as part of a pretrial motion hearing in which the prosecution is seeking permission to use Feliciano’s statements.
Paul read Feliciano his rights and the two chatted about such subjects as the hospital and Feliciano’s job at St. Patrick Church, where he worked for 18 years and said parishioners “treat me like I’m one of their own.”
The rest of the audio interview, as well as a video-recorded portion of interview with Paul that day, are expected to be played this afternoon.
The transcript shows that Feliciano initially talked about how he tried to administer CPR to Hinds after he was found lying dead in a pool of blood in the church rectory on the morning of Oct. 23. Later, Feliciano admitted the stabbing.
In the transcript of the video-recorded conversation, Feliciano said that about five years earlier, he had told Hinds how he was abused as a child and the priest “did some counseling with me.”
Then, about a year after that, Hinds “came back to me and he started talking to me about a possibility of letting me go and he approached me and he started touching me all over, he started touching my privacy,” Feliciano said.
Feliciano said he “didn’t like” being touched there, “but he reminded me about my employment, the possibility that I could not stay there for some reason ...
“Then before you know it, he was having a relationship with me,” Feliciano said.
“Masturbating?” Paul asked.
“Masturbating and he was also using his mouth,” Feliciano replied. "This went on for four years until on Thursday (Oct. 22)."
Feliciano said he told Hinds he wanted to “finish the relationship,” but Hinds said if that happened, “he would have to let me go,” according to Feliciano.
Feliciano said he started to leave the rectory, but he “started to grab me and I pushed him and we started pushing each other, and that’s when I grabbed a knife.” Feliciano later admitted he left the rectory, went to the parish center to get the knife, and then returned to the rectory.
Feliciano said a struggle ensued and he stabbed Hinds several times and “then I killed him.”
“I’m sorry I did,” Feliciano told Paul. “I had no right to do what I did. I’m willing to go to jail for many years if you want me to.”
Feliciano said Hinds called 911 and he interrupted the call, but then the police called back and “I said nobody called.”
Feliciano said he stabbed Hinds because he thought no one would believe his story.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.