By Jake Remaly
The Patch
November 28, 2011
http://chatham.patch.com/articles/feliciano-testifies-he-confessed-to-hinds-about-problems
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Before St. Patrick's Church custodian Jose Feliciano stabbed the Rev. Edward Hinds to death in 2009, he walked the church property, made sure the parish center was clean and did some vacuuming as he did every day.
"The day began like any other day," Feliciano told a jury on Monday, his first day of testimony in his murder trial.
But after Hinds called Feliciano to the rectory the evening of Oct. 22, 2009, and told him he had leave his job immediately, Feliciano started crying and pleading to stay.
Feliciano said he understood Hinds was making him leave because of criminal charges in his past. He said Hinds knew about the charges since he confessed the details of the "problems" to him several years before around the time he first was fingerprinted for his job in January of 2004.
According to Feliciano, Hinds called him a child as he was pleading for his job, which Feliciano said made him furious. He grabbed a knife on the table, and when Hinds grabbed his hand, Feliciano slipped away and walked out "just to get away," he said.
Hinds said Feliciano wouldn't be violent, but then Hinds' hand was cut by the knife and Feliciano stabbed him repeatedly.
"I don't remember where I stabbed him," Feliciano said. "I know I stabbed him a lot of times."
He said he didn't mean to kill Hinds and vomited afterward.
After he stabbed him, Hinds was calling 911 and Feliciano said he smacked the phone out of Hinds' hands. He later picked up when an operator called back and told the operator everything was all right.
Feliciano said he went crazy and was "rolling" but doesn't remember the killing.
Feliciano said he confessed to Hinds in a confessional booth around the time he first was finerprinted in January 2004 to crimes he committed in Pennsylvania that would have prevented him from working at the church. He said after the confession Hinds started touching him sexually against his wishes whenever they had contact and were alone, describing several encounters with the priest.
Feliciano told jurors Monday morning that he confided in the priest he's accused of killing about his "problems in Pennsylvania" and that during subsequent meetings the priest rubbed his leg and grabbed him sexually.
Feliciano took the witness stand for the first time in his trial and testified that he told Hinds in confession about his "problems in Pennsylvania" after Hinds came to the parish and parish employees had to start to be fingerprinted in 2003. Feliciano was a fugitive wanted on charges of indecent assault of a 7-year-old girl and corrupting the morals of a minor.
Feliciano said it was Hinds' idea to tell him about the legal problems in confession.
"He said, 'Let's do it in confession.'... After he heard what I said to him, he was not too happy about it," Feliciano testified.
Afterward, Hinds told Feliciano he and his family had to move out of his house on the edge of the parish campus and Feliciano eventually purchased a home in Easton, Pa., according to Feliciano.
Feliciano said no one else knew the details of his trouble with the law.
"The only person that knew about my problems was Father Ed," Feliciano testified. "That was enough."
Feliciano described two occasions when he said he was talking privately with Hinds and Hinds rubbed his leg and "grabbed his privacy."
Feliciano said he asked Hinds what he was doing, and Hinds said not to worry about it and that it was between them.
"It made me feel very bad and very crappy because I had a lot of admiration for Father Ed," Feliciano said.
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