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	Judge Removes Jury after "Emotional Outburst" By Laura Silvius The Patch December 12, 2011 http://chatham.patch.com/articles/judge-removes-jury-after-emotional-outburst The Hon. Thomas V. Manahan, sitting in Morristown, ended Jose Feliciano's testimony after less than one hour Monday after an "emotional outburst" on the stand, which Feliciano's attorneys said was due to a headache and backache. Robert A. Bianchi, the Morris County prosecutor, was asking Feliciano about the blood stains from the jeans Feliciano wore when he stabbed the Rev. Edward Hinds in the rectory of St. Patrick Church. Feliciano admits to stabbing the priest, allegedly because Hinds fired him after the custodian tried to end a sexual relationship with the priest. In prior testimony, Feliciano said he and Hinds "struggled" with the knife, that they rolled on the floor as they fought for the knife, and that there was blood all over the rectory kitchen. Bianchi admitted Feliciano's clothes from that day into evidence, including a red jacket and a pair of jeans. Neither was torn or ripped, he said, and the jeans had one blood stain on the front of the left leg. "I'm trying to understand, while there's blood on the left side of your pants, why there's no evidence of blood on the rest of your pants," Bianchi said. "I don't know, sir. I don't know, sir. What do you want me to do? I don't know, sir," Feliciano said, agitated. "It wouldn't be," Bianchi asked, "that you weren't rolling around on the floor, you were actually stabbing Father Ed and while he was bleeding on the floor, you were in an upright position?" "No, sir! No! No, sir!" Feliciano banged his fist on the table as he spoke, and began to cry. It was the second time he cried on the stand less than one hour earlier. Manahan sent out the jury and told Feliciano to sit at the defense table. "Mr. Feliciano, you're done," he said. Neill Hamilton, Feliciano's defense attorney, said his client had complained of a headache and a backache before court. "We've given him three Advil, it apparently hasn't had any effect," Hamilton said. Bianchi said Feliciano was prolonging the trial. "This is the third time the jury's had to be sent out," he said. He also said a headache "doesn't mean he can't answer questions truthfully on the stand." Manahan gave Feliciano the option of conferring with counsel before making a decision of whether to continue for the day. After a brief recess, Hamilton asked that court adjourn for the day. Manahan scheduled the jury to return to court Tuesday morning, but told Feliciano and the attorneys that "this jury is not going to be influenced, I hope, by an emotional outburst by anyone." Before the outburst, Bianchi asked Feliciano about the bag he used to transport the knife, bloody towels and other evidence from the rectory to his home in Easton, Pa. home. The prosecutor read some of a statement given to police by Feliciano's daughter, then a student at St. Patrick School, where she states her father brought his black bag with him to the family car on the day Hinds died. "I don't know where my daughter got the story. She didn't see no black bag because I didn't have no black bag," Feliciano said. In his testimony Monday, Feliciano said he used plastic bags from the rectory to transport the evidence of Hinds' murder. He said his black carrier bag was in the car when he got there. "We have a routine," he said. "If I don't get [the bag], she will go to get it." Feliciano previously stated he usually kept the bag in the parish center while he worked during the day. Bianchi asked Feliciano if his cell phone was in the bag or on him the day of Hinds' death. "I'm not sure, I don't remember," he said. "I didn't have my cell phone. When I asked for my cell phone, my wife said it was in the bag." When Bianchi asked if he remembered telling Capt. Jeffrey Paul of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office that he put the evidence into his black bag, Feliciano said, "No, sir. I said a lot of things to him, and I probably misunderstood him. ... "Why should I lie? Why should I lie, sir?" Feliciano asked Bianchi as he began to cry. "I told you that I carried all that rags, all the stuff, put it into the bag there and I put it into the van. I am guilty of killing the priest, okay? I killed the priest." Hinds was stabbed 44 times on Oct. 22, 2009. Most of the wounds, prosecutors said, were superficial. The priest's body was discovered on Thursday, Oct. 23, when Hinds did not appear for morning Mass.
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