Ex-priest from N.J. met his killer online through ad asking men to wrestle in ‘submission’ matches, Nevada cops say

By Kelly Heyboer
Star Ledger
June 5, 2019

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John Capparelli in a photo taken in 2011. The former priest was found murdered in Nevada in March.

John Capparelli’s home in Henderson, Nevada, pictured on Wednesday, March 13, 2019. Police responded to a welfare check last Saturday at the residence, 1465 Bonner Springs Drive, and found Capparelli shot dead in an apparent homicide. Photo by Chris Kudialis

Derrick Decoste, 25, is accused of murder and robbery in connection with the death of former priest John Capparelli.

Then-Rev. John Capparelli allegedly spent decades in New Jersey organizing wrestling matches for young boys and teenagers in church basements and youth clubs where he sometimes donned a Speedo and wrestled the young men in “submission” matches that often turned brutal and sadistic.

Capparelli was suspended in 1992 and eventually defrocked by the Catholic Church after some of the boys alleged he violently groped them during the wrestling matches and sexually assaulted them when they were alone with him in churches, at camps and on vacations.

The ex-priest, who denied the charges and was never prosecuted, eventually left New Jersey and started a new life in a quiet neighborhood in Henderson, Nevada.

But, it appears Capparelli kept looking for young men to wrestle.

The former priest -- who was shot in the head in his Nevada house in March -- allegedly met his killer through an online Craigslist ad Capparelli placed seeking men to wrestle in his house in “submission matches,” according to a report in the Las Vegas Sun.

Investigators found “hundreds of homemade DVDs that featured nearly-nude men wrestling inside (his) home, presumably while the victim filmed them,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Nevada police issued the warrant earlier this week for Derrick Decoste, 25, on charges of murder and robbery with a deadly weapon in connection with Capparelli’s death. Investigators said Decoste met Capparelli through the Craigslist ad and visited him several times, intending to rob him, the report said.

Capparelli, 70, was found dead in his kitchen March 9 after someone asked police to make a welfare check at his house. Investigators said the former priest’s wallet, car keys and cell phone were missing after his death.

Decoste told police he knew Capparelli, but he denied killing him, the report said.

Decoste’s girlfriend allegedly assisted police by giving them a bag of her boyfriend’s belongings. Those possessions included a gun and a watch that belonged to Capparrelli, the report said. The watch was inscribed with the words “Newark Teachers Union Local 481,” the union where Capparelli was part of the the union when he worked as a school teacher after leaving the priesthood.

Nearly two decades after he was removed from ministry for alleged sexual abuse, a 2011 investigation by The Star-Ledger revealed Capparelli was working as a public school math teacher in Newark. After the report detailing past allegations of abuse, the former priest voluntarily surrendered his New Jersey teaching licenses.

The Star-Ledger also reported corporate records showed Capparelli formed a production company in 1999 that produced fetish videos. A website linked to the company, nhb-battle.com, sold erotic videos of adult men in tight bathing suits wrestling.

The goal of “submission” wrestling is not to pin an opponent, but to force him into defeat by causing pain or extreme discomfort.

The videos sold for $6.95 to $14.95. Capparelli later shut down the website after he was sued by one of the boys he allegedly abused while he was a priest.

In Nevada, neighbors on his quiet street in Henderson said Capparelli was quiet and appeared retired. But he would routinely have a couple of visitors a week. There were always high school and college aged men, neighbors said.

Weeks before his death, Capparelli was one of 188 priests and deacons in the state who had been “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse named on a list released by New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses.

Decoste is awaiting extradition to Nevada to face the murder and robbery charges in Henderson. He is already in custody in Michigan, where he has been in jail on unrelated charges since March 27, less than three weeks after Capparelli was shot, police said.

Decoste was arrested in Oakland County, Michigan, on charges of credit card fraud and impersonating a police officer, according to jail records.