Accused Killer of Chatham Priest Claims Longtime Affair with Victim, by Peggy Wright, Asbury Park Press, August 7 2010

Accused Killer of Chatham Priest Claims Long-time Affair with Victim

By Peggy Wright
Asbury Park Press
August 7 2010

http://www.app.com/article/20100807/NEWS03/100807038/Accused-killer-of-Chatham-priest-claims-long-time-affair-with-victim

Arraignment of Jose Feliciano for the murder of Chatham priest Fr. Edward Hinds. Feliciano is led into the courtroom for his March 2010 arraignment.

The custodian charged with stabbing the Rev. Edward Hinds at St. Patrick's Church in Chatham claims the cleric didn't want him to end a homosexual affair but authorities say that's a contrived, self-serving tale to hide the motive behind the slaying.

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office has filed a motion with Superior Court to introduce at trial evidence it says will show Jose Feliciano was trying to hide his secret that he was a fugitive since 1988 from a charge in Philadelphia for sexually touching a child.

''The evidence at trial will show that the victim became aware of the defendant's criminal history and that discovery and pending dissemination of that information by the decedent was going to result in the defendant's termination of employment,'' county Assistant Prosecutor John McNamara Jr. said in a motion filed with Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan.

McNamara also filed a second motion which seeks admissibility at trial of a confession to the Oct. 22, 2009, homicide that Feliciano, now 65, gave to Capt. Jeffrey Paul of the prosecutor's office .

At the time of his fatal stabbing in the rectory of St. Patrick's, Hinds, 61, had been involved in gathering background information on Feliciano. The pastor was complying with a Roman Catholic Church mandate that all employees undergo background checks and he had learned that Feliciano, the parish custodian for 17 years, had never fully complied with the checks, McNamara's motion said.

Feliciano was charged in Philadelphia in 1988 with inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl and a bench warrant was issued after he failed to appear in court. Now a married father of two, he never resolved the 1988 charge and instead, used name variations and different Social Security numbers to avoid the long-standing warrant, authorities allege.

Police learned that Hinds, before his death, had been using his American Express credit card to pay for criminal history checks on Feliciano. The cleric also told the principal of St. Patrick's School that he had to ''let Jose go,'' court papers said.

Feliciano was among the people who found the priest's body in the rectory around 8 a.m. on Oct. 23 after he failed to appear at the church to celebrate morning Mass. Feliciano performed CPR on the priest, and later was taken to Morristown Memorial Hospital complaining of chest pains and being overwhelmed by the killing.

Detectives, meanwhile, used cellular towers to trace the priest's cell phone to Easton, Pa., where Feliciano lived. On Oct. 23, detectives found a plastic bag containing bloody cloth and paper towels in a garbage can in a park near Feliciano's home. They also found pieces of the priest's cell phone, his missing handset and a kitchen knife in the park, the motion said.

In a confession that Feliciano allegedly made to Capt. Paul from his hospital bed on Oct. 24, the suspect contended that he and Hinds had a sexual relationship for about four years.

He claimed that on Oct. 22, 2009, he met Hinds in the rectory. He said he had previously told the priest he wanted their affair to end but that Hinds told him he would be fired if he didn't continue. Feliciano reportedly confessed to Paul that he became very angry, argued with the priest and then retrieved a kitchen knife and stabbed him to death, the motion said.

McNamara contended in his brief that the sexual relationship claim is self-serving and not supported by any facts. Feliciano's attorney, public defender Neill Hamilton, still has to respond to the brief but has told the court he is retaining a psychiatrist to possibly pursue a defense of insanity.

''The defendant's version of his motive for the murder differs profoundly from the independent facts determined by the investigation, which tend to show the defendant was going to be terminated from his employment because of the existence of his criminal history which was about to be discovered due to a scheduled audit of all church employees,'' McNamara wrote.