By Ben Horowitz
The Star-Ledger
October 25, 2011
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/in_trial_jury_shown_knife_alle.html
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| Jose Feliciano, a former church custodian accused of murder in the stabbing death of the Rev. Edward Hinds, a Chatham priest, enters the Morris County Courthouse in Morristown. (Jennifer Brown/The Star-Ledger) |
Two days after a Chatham priest was stabbed to death, a small brown steak knife was found across the street from the home of the church custodian accused of killing him, a Morris County Sheriff’s investigator testified today.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Puzio, a former detective, was on the witness stand most of the day, identifying numerous pieces of evidence he collected during the autopsy of the Rev. Edward Hinds and during a search of the home and neighborhood of former custodian Jose Feliciano.
Feliciano, now 66, of Easton, Pa., is on trial in Superior Court in Morristown on a murder charge in the Oct. 22, 2009 death of Hinds, the former pastor at St. Patrick Church. Feliciano is accused of stabbing Hinds 32 times in the church rectory.
Feliciano’s public defender, Neill Hamilton, has admitted the custodian stabbed the priest but has called it a “passion/provocation manslaughter” and not a murder. Hinds provoked Feliciano into killing him by making him perform unspecified acts, according to Hamilton.
Puzio testified that on Oct. 24, 2009, he traveled twice to Easton to investigate the case and bring back evidence. During an afternoon search of a ballfield in a park across the street from Feliciano’s home, investigators found the knife next to the fence at the back of the outfield, Puzio said. It was the only knife they found in the area, he said.
Under questioning from Morris County Assistant Prosecutor David Bruno, Puzio showed the jury the knife as well as the cell phone identified as belonging to Hinds that was also found during that search.
Investigators recovered the cell phone in a wooded area behind the outfield fence, Puzio said.
That phone proved to be a key piece of evidence for the prosecution when investigators discovered that its first-ever calls from Easton were made a few hours after the killing.
Armed with a search warrant, investigators also went into Feliciano’s house during the afternoon and recovered various items of clothing belonging to Feliciano that were stained, including a jacket, a sweatshirt and a pair of blue jeans, Puzio said. He acknowledged that nothing linking Feliciano to Hinds was found inside the house.
During the initial search of the park at 3:45 a.m. that day, investigators found a plastic grocery bag containing two towels and two paper towels, all with red stains, in a garbage can directly across the street from Feliciano’s house, Puzio testified.
As part of the autopsy, conducted at Morristown Memorial Hospital during the evening of Oct. 23, 2009, Puzio said his job was to collect items taken from the victim and put them on the evidence list.
Those items included a blood-stained shirt, a stained pair of underwear, a calendar book found in Hinds’ shirt pocket and a wallet found in his back pocket, Puzio testified.
Under questioning from Hamilton, Puzio acknowledged that three checks worth a total of $1,096 had been left in the priest’s shirt pocket, and the wallet still contained $272 in cash.
Sheriff’s Detective Kelly Zienowicz, who had testified Monday that blood was splattered all over the rectory kitchen, completed her testimony and said blood was also found in the bathroom, in front of the toilet and in front of the sink.
The trial was recessed for the rest of the week and is to resume Monday morning before Judge Thomas Manahan.
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