By Ben Horowitz
The Star-Ledger
December 6, 2011
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/jose_feliciano_breaks_down_on.html
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| Murder suspect, Jose Feliciano broke down while testifying in court today. |
Murder defendant Jose Feliciano broke down on the witness stand today when the prosecutor pressed him about the bag he used to carry bloody rags and towels away from the scene of the killing in Chatham.
After the judge sent the jury out of the courtroom, Feliciano regained his composure when the trial resumed 15 minutes later.
Feliciano, a former church custodian accused in the 2009 stabbing death of the parish priest, the Rev. Edward Hinds, came back to the stand in Superior Court in Morristown late this morning for a fifth day of testimony. It is his fourth day of cross-examination by Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi.
Bianchi again had Feliciano review previous statements in an effort to establish inconsistencies.
Feliciano began weeping after Bianchi said, in a rapid, matter-of-fact tone, “After you killed Father Ed, you cleaned up.”
Bianchi wanted to know what time Feliciano went from the rectory at St. Patrick Church to the parish center to get the black, insulated lunch bag that he carried with him each day. Feliciano said his wife, Marisol, got the bag, as “she always did.”
“I did not have the black bag, sir,” Feliciano said.
Bianchi pointed out that in a statement to an investigator two days after the killing, and in his testimony last week, Feliciano didn’t say anything about his wife getting the bag.
Feliciano told the investigator, “I have a black bag” and “I put everything in a bag,” Bianchi pointed out.
Feliciano said he found a black shopping bag in a garbage can outside St. Patrick School, and he put the bloody rags and towels in that bag.
Pointing at the insulated bag sitting on the witness stand, Feliciano broke into tears as he shouted, “I didn’t use that bag. This bag has no blood on it, sir.”
Judge Thomas Manahan sent the jury out of the courtroom and halted the trial. He reminded Feliciano that he had told him, “This is not a boxing match” and suggested he talk with his attorneys to discuss his testimony about the bag later in the trial.
Urging everyone to stay calm, Manahan added, “I have a duty to control the conduct of the courtroom. I understand this is an emotional case, and emotions run very high.”
After the jury returned and the trial resumed, Bianchi showed Feliciano a picture on a video screen of a yellow grocery bag. Feliciano acknowledged that was the bag he used to carry the bloody rags and towels.
“So it is not a black bag you put the stuff in, it’s a yellow bag,” Bianchi said.
Feliciano, calmer than before, acknowledged the bag was yellow.
The bag, with the rags and towels, was found by investigators a day after the killing in a trash can in a park across the street from Feliciano’s home in Easton, Pa.
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