By Ben Horowitz
The Star-Ledger
December 6, 2011
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/feliciano_jury_to_hear_only_pa.html
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| Murder suspect Jose Feliciano gestures how he pulled the knife away from murder victim, Father Edward Hinds while the men argued during his murder trial last week. |
The jury in the Jose Feliciano murder trial will be hearing only part of a three-hour interview the former church custodian conducted with an investigator two days after the 2009 stabbing of a Chatham priest.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Manahan, sitting in Morristown, ruled today that portions of the interview that are “consistent” with Feliciano’s testimony during the trial are the only ones the jury may hear.
Feliciano’s public defender, Neill Hamilton had asked to play the entire interview with Capt. Jeffrey Paul of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office. Hamilton said that would “clarify” that Feliciano was “distraught” at the time of the conversation at Morristown Medical Center.
“The complete statement is necessary for the jury to get the full flavor of it,” Hamilton said.
Acknowledging that Feliciano changed parts of his story during testimony, Hamilton said Feliciano may have been telling the truth when he said his memory of the incident was better in 2011 than it was in 2009.
Feliciano is charged with murder in the Oct. 22, 2009 slaying of the Rev. Edward Hinds, pastor at St. Patrick Church. Feliciano has admitted the stabbing but contends it was a “passion/provocation” manslaughter, and not a murder.
Feliciano said Hinds provoked him by firing him less than five months before he would have retired after forcing him to touch him sexually for four years in exchange for keeping criminal charges against him quiet.
The prosecution contends Hinds fired Feliciano upon learning the janitor was a fugitive from three unresolved 1988 criminal charges in Pennsylvania, which included indecent assault on a child.
Manahan said that under court rules that apply to this circumstance, only “prior consistent statements” may be presented to the jury, in an effort to rebut accusations of a "recent fabriciation" by a defendant.
Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi has “explicitly” accused Feliciano of making up his story, Manahan pointed out, so his attorneys may present prior consistent statements.
Manahan said it would not be “appropriate” to play the recording for the jury merely to demonstrate Feliciano’s “demeanor” at the time of the interview. The defense can put Feliciano back on the stand for re-direct examination and ask him questions about his feelings at the time of the interview, Manahan pointed out.
Manahan instructed Feliciano’s attorneys to go through the 152-page transcript and find portions that are “consistent” with his testimony in the trial.
The judge said the defense may not use emotional comments Feliciano made at the end of the interview, when he said he should be locked away, treated like “an animal” and should not have a trial. “I’m willing to go to jail for many years if you want me to,” Feliciano told Paul.
Those statements would have a “prejudicial” effect and could prove “confusing” to the jury, Manahan said.
Bianchi had objected strenuously to allowing that part of the interview, saying the defense wanted to use it only to “garner sympathy.”
Bianchi said Feliciano was “surprisingly unemotional” during the interview and displayed emotion only when he talked about “what was going to happen to him and to his family.”
During the interview, Feliciano said he went to Hinds on Oct. 22, 2009 to end the sexual relationship and wound up stabbing the priest after Hinds said he would be fired if that happened.
During the trial, however, Feliciano said Hinds called him into the rectory and said he would be fired because of unspecified “problems in the parish.”
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