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	Jury Pool Almost Filled in Priest-murder Trial By Peggy Wright Daily Record September 30, 2011 http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20110929/NJNEWS/309290043/Jury-pool-almost-filled-in-priest-murder-trial Juror selection in Morristown is nearing an end for the trial of church custodian Jose Feliciano on charges of fatally stabbing the Rev. Edward Hinds in Chatham in 2009. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have spent the past three weeks “prequalifying” a large pool of prospective jurors who don’t have a hardship sitting on the case and didn’t indicate any bias or familiarity with the case that would disqualify them from sitting. As of the close of the court day Thursday, 48 prospective jurors had been prequalified. The lawyers and Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan want to have a pool of about 60 people prequalified before the lawyers exercise their peremptory challenges and finally choose a jury of 16 people, four of whom will serve as alternates. Hearings scheduled Testimony is expected to begin Oct. 17, almost two years to the Oct. 22, 2009, date of the cleric’s slaying. His body was discovered around 8 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2009, when he failed to appear to celebrate morning Mass. Feliciano, now 66, is accused of stabbing the 61-year-old pastor of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Chatham 32 times in the kitchen of the church rectory. Morris County prosecutors allege that Hinds discovered that Feliciano had a criminal past he was hiding and planned to fire him. Feliciano, in a confession to Prosecutor’s Office Capt. Jeffrey Paul, stated that he lost control and killed the priest, but he claimed he did so because Hinds threatened to fire him if he stopped their homosexual relationship. Prosecutors contend there is no evidence that the two men had an intimate relationship. The screening of prospective jurors has been unusually careful so that people with strong opinions about the church and past sex scandals involving clergymen could be weeded out. Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com
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