NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Herald

MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) – A former church janitor convicted of murdering a New Jersey priest is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

Jose Feliciano didn’t deny stabbing the Rev. Edward Hinds to death in the rectory of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Chatham in 2009.

But Feliciano was unable to persuade a jury he had killed Hinds in a fit of rage over sexual blackmail.

Prosecutors say Feliciano, of Easton, Pa., stabbed the priest more than 30 times after Hinds fired him. Investigators say Hinds had discovered Feliciano had an outstanding arrest warrant in Philadelphia from the 1980s for sexually touching a child.