Testimony Begins in Feliciano Confession Hearing

The Hon. Thomas V. Manahan began to hear testimony Monday in the matter of whether a confession to the murder of the Rev. Edward Hinds by Jose Feliciano was given voluntarily.

Det. Robert McNally of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office was the first to testify in the hearing. McNally, along with another detective from the Prosecutor's Office, were the first to speak to Feliciano after Hinds' body was discovered.

According to McNally's testimony Monday, Feliciano was not a suspect when detectives first questioned him on the morning of Oct. 23 at Morristown Memorial Hospital. McNally said that he had learned from the Chatham Borough Police Department that a church employee had been transported to the hospital after attemping CPR on Hinds' body.

McNally said that he and Det. Keyla E. Dent had questioned Feliciano and his wife in a hospital room adjacent to the emergency department section of the hospital from approximately 10:20 a.m. until around 11 a.m. that morning.

At no point, McNally said, did Feliciano express difficulty understanding English, require clarification of the detective's questions or his own responses, or express an unwillingness to speak with police. Feliciano appeared to McNally to be responsive and oriented as to his surroundings, and hospital staff did not make him aware of any medical conditions that would have precluded Feliciano from being able to talk. He said that he told Feliciano that Dent spoke Spanish and could act as an interpreter if he wanted, but that Feliciano did not want or need an interpreter.

McNally did say that Feliciano admitted not being able to remember whether the Chatham Borough Police Department had recommended that he go to the hospital, or whether he had driven himself.

McNally said that Feliciano had told him that he had been walking on the grounds of St. Patrick Church in Chatham with another employee, John Gallagher, when one of the church's deacons came out of the rectory and said that he needed help and that something had happened to Hinds.

Upon finding Hinds lying on the kitchen floor motionless, McNally said that Feliciano told him he had attempted to resuscitate him, touching Hinds' shirt and head. McNally wrote in his report that Feliciano stated that he "became too emotional to continue with the CPR" after he observed Hinds' blood on his hands.

Defense attorney Neill Hamilton asked McNally about his notes from the interview, which McNally said had been shredded after he wrote his official report on Nov. 4, over a week after the initial interview with Feliciano.

Hamilton also asked McNally if Feliciano had been hooked up to an IV or given any medication by hospital staff in the room while they spoke. McNally said that while hospital staff did come into the room, he did not see Feliciano given any medication and he could not remember if Feliciano had been hooked up to an IV.

After McNally stepped down, prosecutor John McNamara, Jr. asked that the court grant the state permission to obtain Feliciano's medical records from his time at Morristown Memorial Hospital. He said that if the defense intended to ask witnesses as to Feliciano's medical condition, that the state had the right to view his records.

Hamilton said that he had not asked about Feliciano's medical state but that he questioned the "common sense" that someone on an IV being questioned by detectives is not free to "get up and walk away."

"Anyone who's ever been on an IV knows what a burden it is to get up and go to the bathroom, let alone say [to police], 'I'm done talking to you,'" Hamilton said.

Manahan agreed to keep Feliciano's medical records private for the time being.

Testimony began Monday afternoon, after Manahan ruled on two other motions in the case on Monday morning. Further testimony regarding other police interviews with Feliciano, including his alleged confession to Hinds' murder, will be heard Tuesday and Thursday.