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	Opening Statements in Chatham Priest Murder Trial Likely Next Week By Peggy Wright Daily Record October 10, 2011 http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20111010/NJNEWS/310100015/Opening-statements-in-Chatham-priest-murder-trial-likely-next-week A jury of 16 Morris County residents is expected to be impaneled Oct. 17 to hear the trial of the church custodian charged with fatally stabbing the Rev. Edward Hinds in Chatham two years ago. County prosecutors and two defense lawyers spent nearly all of September and the first week of this month pre-qualifying a pool of 68 people who said jury service wouldn’t be a hardship and they didn’t have any biases or unusual qualms about hearing the evidence. From the pool of 68 people, the lawyers can exercise a total of 32 peremptory challenges, or excuse certain people without stating their reasons. Sixteen people ultimately will be selected, including four that will be designated before deliberations to act as alternates. If final jury selection goes smoothly, opening trial statements could occur Monday but could be put off until Tues., Oct. 18. Jose Feliciano, 66, of Easton, Pa., is charged with purposefully and knowingly murdering the priest and robbing him of his cell phone; defense lawyers may pursue a theory of passion//provocation manslaughter, a less serious form of homicide in terms of punishment. Feliciano is accused of stabbing the 61-year-old pastor of St. Patrick Church 32 times on Oct. 22, 2009, in the kitchen of the rectory. The priest’s body was discovered around 8 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2009, when he didn’t show up to celebrate morning mass. Feliciano, a married father of two, has contended he killed because the priest threatened to fire him unless he continued their homosexual relationship. Prosecutors have called this claim uncorroborated and self-serving and say that Hinds learned the janitor had criminal secrets in his past and was preparing to fire him. Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com
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