Janitor Testifies He 'Heard a Voice' in Struggle with Priest

Judge Thomas V. Manahan, sitting in Morristown, refused to grant a mistrial Tuesday to public defender Neill Hamilton in the matter of the State of New Jersey vs. Jose Feliciano.

Feliciano is accused of stabbing the Rev. Edward Hinds, the former pastor of in Chatham Borough, 32 times on Oct. 22, 2009. He said Hinds blackmailed him into a sexual relationship for over about 5 years, beginning in 2004. 

Feliciano stated during cross examination Tuesday that when he learned Hinds planned to fire him because of "problems in the parish," he became angry.

"When Father Ed and I started to argue I heard a voice say 'Do it now, do it now, now, now,'" he said.

"I did not hear the words 'stab him,' I did not hear the words 'kill him,'" Feliciano said in testimony Tuesday. "The voice said, 'Just do it.' Father Hinds and I continued struggling. I forgot about everything else. I lost it."

Robert A. Bianchi, the Morris County prosecutor, asked Feliciano about the alleged abuse he suffered at the hands of Hinds.

Bianchi asked Feliciano how many times Hinds had "groped" him, saying, "that's not something you're likely to forget."

Feliciano testified Hinds first touched him inappropriately in the rectory of St. Patrick's Church. The second time, he said, was also in the rectory when Hinds "grabbed" him and caused him physical pain. He also said the abuse happened in the middle school and in the parish office.

Bianchi, inquiring into differing statements between Feliciano's testimony and his prior statements to law enforcement and medical professionals, asked why Feliciano told Capt. Jeffrey Paul, of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, on Oct. 24, 2009 that the abuse took place "always in the rectory."

"In the beginning I was lying, and then I began to tell him things. And the reason I was lying is because I didn't want him to know," Feliciano said.

Feliciano also said he was abused by a priest while preparing for his First Communion during cross-examination Tuesday.

Bianchi began his cross examination Tuesday afternoon by questioning Feliciano's veracity in statements to Paul. The questioning was done while Feliciano was admitted to Morristown Memorial Hospital one day after Hinds' body was discovered. It was digitaly recorded, and Feliciano's confession to Paul was videotaped.

A transcript of Paul's questioning shows Feliciano at first denied any involvement in Hinds' death. "You lied under oath," Bianchi said.

Feliciano told Paul, and testified in court Monday, that he killed the priest at Hinds' hands. 

Bianchi asked if Feliciano had ever had a similar experience to the abuse. Feliciano said he was abused by a priest when he was 9 years old while preparing to celebrate his First Communion at a church in Brooklyn. He did not recall the name of the priest.

"It happened when I was a child," he said. "It happened several times, then I told my grandmother."

Feliciano said he told another St. Patrick employee, Maris Barrett (who testified earlier in trial) and Hinds of the abuse in 2003. 

Judge Thomas V. Manahan, who presides over the case, adjourned for lunch as Bianchi began asking Feliciano about how Hinds' abuse started.

Defense attorney Balin Baidwin continued the direct examination of Jose Feliciano, the St. Patrick's Church custodian accused of killing the Rev. Edward Hinds in October 2009.

Feliciano said in his direct examination by defense attorney Balin Baidwin he tried to hide evidence of Hinds' murder. When his wife asked about the red color on his clothes, he said he told her it was paint.

Feliciano said he laid down in the back seat of the family van while his wife drove to their home in Easton, Pa., and that he showered and washed his clothes before disposing of items he took from the parish rectory.

"I couldn't tell my wife and my daughter what I had done," he said. "I didn't want nobody to know."