By Laura Silvius
The Patch
December 19, 2011
http://chatham.patch.com/articles/murder-trial-summations-to-begin-monday#photo-8705202
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| Jose Feliciano on the stand Wednesday, Dec. 14. Credit Laura Silvius |
Closing arguments in the trial of Jose Feliciano for the Rev. Edward Hinds are scheduled to begin Monday at 9 a.m.
The trial began on Oct. 17, nearly two years after Hinds was stabbed 44 times on Oct. 22, 2009. Feliciano confessed to the murder two days later to Capt. Jeffrey Paul of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.
Feliciano's attorney Neill Hamilton argued Hinds initiated a sexual relationship with Feliciano shortly after coming to St. Patrick Church in 2003. Feliciano said when he tried to end the relationship, Hinds fired the custodian, leading to a struggle. Feliciano said he "heard voices" while struggling over a knife with the priest.
While taking the stand in his own defense, Feliciano testified he was molested by a priest at a Brooklyn church as a child. He said Hinds knew about the abuse and, along with another parish staff member, facilitated counseling with a nun for him. The Star Ledger reported Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi called the nun, Sister Catherine Morrisett, as a rebuttal witness. She testified Feliciano never told her about the childhood abuse.
Bianchi argued Feliciano killed the priest when Hinds fired him after learning about several outstanding charges alleging Feliciano assaulted a young girl in Philadelphia in 1988. Those charges made Feliciano ineligible for employment under the program Protecting God's Children, which the Roman Catholic Church instituted in the wake of the priest abuse scandal in the last decade.
Feliciano admitted to stabbing the priest in the rectory, then cleaning up blood from the room and taking the evidence, including bloody towels and the knife, back to his Easton, Pa. home and disposing of them in a nearby park.
Hinds also managed to call 911 on his mobile phone during the attack. Feliciano said he got the phone away from Hinds before he could speak to the operator. When the operator called back again, he said there was no emergency.
Check back with Chatham Patch for coverage of the closing arguments Monday.
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