By Peggy Wright
Daily Record
November 30, 2011
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20111130/NJNEWS/311300013/Judge-rules-prosecutor-can-t-ask-janitor-charged-with-killing-Chatham-priest-about-his-alleged-bigamy
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| Jose Feliciano answers questions during the cross examination by Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi in Superior Court Wednesday. Feliciano is accused of killing Rev. Edward Hinds of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Chatham. / TAFF PHOTOGRAPHER/BOB KARP |
Jose Feliciano's admitted "homicidal rage" that led to his fatal attack on the Rev. Edward Hinds in Chatham was put under a spotlight Wednesday by a prosecutor who charged that the ex-janitor had a chance to cool off but returned to the rectory to end the priest's life.
On the witness stand for a third day in his murder trial in Morristown, Feliciano, 66, was repeatedly questioned by Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi on why he picked up a steak knife during a heated argument with the priest and then left the rectory of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church to walk the grounds, still holding the steak knife.
"You made a conscious decision to leave, to cool off?" Bianchi asked the former church custodian.
"I made a decision to just walk away so I was able to talk with him without yelling," Feliciano said.
He kept repeating that anger compelled him to take a steak knife off a table in the rectory on Oct. 22, 2009, after Hinds told him he was fired from his longtime job. Feliciano claims that Hinds had promised him job security in exchange for letting him fondle Feliciano's genitals, but prosecutors contend that evidence shows the priest discovered the janitor was wanted for a crime against a child in Philadelphia and terminated him.
Feliciano testified that he and the priest yelled at each other when he learned he was fired. He said he picked up a knife and left but returned with the knife because the priest had insisted they needed to finish their conversation. Feliciano has stated that during the renewed discussion he stabbed the priest to death.
The fact that Feliciano left the rectory and returned is critical in that it can be argued as a "cooling-off" period that could negate a passion/provocation manslaughter defense. Feliciano has asserted that he flew into a "homicidal rage" and stabbed Hinds 44 times, but such a passion/provocation defense can be rejected if a jury believes the defendant had an adequate chance to cool off between the provocation and attack.
Feliciano also has claimed that Hinds promised him that he wouldn't have to worry about keeping his job so long as he was available to be groped. But Bianchi confronted him with prior testimony from St. Patrick business administrator Virginia Donnellen, who said that Feliciano had cried and whined to her in 2009 about his fears that he would be fired like another janitorial worker.
"Why wouldn't you go to the guy … who you say has been sexually assaulting you?" Bianchi asked. "You could be walking around like the big man on campus. Why would you go to anyone else?"
Feliciano's stock response to those queries was that he was worried or he simply didn't want to bother "Father Ed."
Also on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan ruled that the jury would not be told that Feliciano is suspected of being a bigamist.
Outside the jury's presence, Bianchi asked the judge's permission to reveal that no records can be found of Feliciano divorcing his first wife to marry his current wife, Marisol, in 1990.
"It goes squarely to the credibility of the defendant. This man moves around facts. This man moves around circumstances and places himself in the world as an upright, respectable" individual, Bianchi said.
Defense lawyer Neill Hamilton objected and the judge ruled that the evidence would be too prejudicial to the defendant, if even relevant at all.
But Bianchi did get the go-ahead from the judge to question Feliciano about his resume, which includes jobs in fields that Bianchi called technical or sophisticated. Bianchi will be allowed to ask Feliciano why he settled for a menial custodial job if he had a background that included skilled jobs, political and youth-related association activities.
Prosecutors suspect that Feliciano took the St. Patrick custodian job in 1991 because he was using a false Social Security number and birth date to avoid apprehension on a charge of sexually violating a minor child in Philadelphia in 1988. They contend his past caught up with him in 2009, when Hinds learned he was a fugitive, and that he killed the priest to avoid detection and losing his job.
Bianchi wanted to bring out information about Feliciano's prior marriage to show his personal life is not as wholesome as he has led the jury to believe. He has testified he married in 1990 in a civil ceremony but had a religious ceremony a few years later because his wife is devoutly religious.
The purpose of eliciting information about Feliciano's resume — expected to occur sometime this week — is to show jurors that Feliciano is not an uneducated bumpkin unfamiliar with sophisticated concepts, Bianchi said. Though he is a high school dropout, Feliciano said he has taken at least 40 college credits at schools in New York.
Contact: pwright@njpressmedia.com
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