By Ben Horowitz
The Star-Ledger
October 16, 2011
www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/trial_to_start_this_week_in_ch.html
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| The defendant, Jose Feliciano, being led into Superior Court in Morristown in July. Feliciano's trial is set to begin this week. |
CHATHAM — Nearly two years after the Rev. Edward Hinds was found lying in a pool of blood in the rectory of St. Patrick Church in Chatham — the victim of 32 stab wounds — his alleged assailant will be going to trial this week.
Jose Feliciano, 66, of Easton, Pa., the church's former custodian, is accused of murder in the death of the popular 61-year-old priest whose funeral was attended by more than 1,000 people.
Jury selection is expected to be completed tomorrow morning in Superior Court in Morristown and officials anticipate attorneys will make their opening statements in the afternoon or Tuesday morning.
In his opening, Feliciano's public defender, Neill Hamilton, will reveal his defense for the first time.
Hamilton may have tipped his hand a bit during the debate over questions that would be posed to potential jurors. The attorney was upset when Judge Thomas Manahan refused to ask them a series of questions about sexual impropriety, including whether they would be biased "if there is an allegation of sexual activity by a Roman Catholic priest."
Instead, Manahan agreed to ask just one general question about the issue, without saying it might be involved in this case. Jurors were asked whether the sexual abuse cases involving priests "that have been reported in recent years" would prevent them from being fair and impartial.
In a video-recorded statement that will be allowed in the trial, Feliciano admitted he stabbed Hinds, but he said he did it during an argument after the priest threatened to fire him for ending a four-year sexual affair.
The prosecution has called that confession "self-serving" and noted the defense could use it to prove the stabbing was not a murder, but rather a "passion/provocation manslaughter" that could result in a lesser penalty.
Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi contends Feliciano stabbed Hinds because the priest was planning to fire him after learning he was a fugitive from a 1988 Pennsylvania charge of indecent assault on a 7-year-old girl.
The Feliciano trial is expected to last eight weeks.
Some 67 potential jurors will be returning to the courtroom tomorrow after they were "pre-qualified" during 13 days of jury-selection sessions that began Sept. 7.
They were chosen from more than 600 people who answered 53 questions, including 23 that were specific to this case, and asked about such subjects as their views of the Catholic Church and whether they had ever been fired.
With the defense having a total of 20 juror challenges available, and the prosecution having 12, officials are confident they'll be able to seat 16 jurors tomorrow from the group of 67. Twelve jurors will serve on the panel and the other four will be alternates.
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