Warrant Issued In Murder Of Ex-Westfield Area Priest: Police

WESTFIELD, NJ - A suspect in the murder of a former New Jersey parish leader named on the list of priests "credibly accused" of child sex abuse has been named and is awaiting extradition from Michigan, according to authorities.

According to Henderson Police Department spokeswoman Katrina Rothmeyer, Derrick Decoste, 25, is currently jailed in Oakland County, Michigan, on unrelated charges and is awaiting extradition to Henderson. A warrant of arrest has been issued for Decoste for the charges of Murder with a Deadly Weapon and Robbery with a Deadly Weapon, Rothmeyer said.

John Capparelli, 70, was discovered by the Henderson Police Department after conducting a welfare check on him in his home in the 1400 block of Bonner Springs Drive shortly after 9:30 a.m., March 9 authorities said.

According to officials, Capparelli had placed an ad on Craigslist seeking young men to wrestle and that Decoste responded to it.

According to the report in the Las Vegas Review Journal, Decoste's girlfriend said after his second visit to the Henderson home of Capparelli mentioned robbing the 70-year-old man, she told investigators. She also gave police a bag containing Decoste’s handgun and several wristwatches.

A face on one of the watches bore the logo “Newark Teachers Union — Local 481,” which Capparelli’s brother would later confirm Capparelli received upon becoming vice president of the union in 2008, according to the report.

Police immediately deemed the circumstances of Capparelli's death suspicious and began investigating it as a homicide, police said. The Clark County Office of the Coroner said Capparelli died of a gunshot wound to the neck and ruled his death a homicide.

Capparelli was reported to have worked at North Bergen's Our Lady of Fatima, Summit's Oratory Prep, Westfield's Holy Trinity, Kenilworth's St. Theresa and Ridgewood's Valley Hospital.

According to leaders of the Catholic Church in New Jersey, Capparelli was permanently removed from ministry and laicized more than two decades ago.

According to officials, laicization is the loss of the clerical state or the removal of a bishop, priest or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy. In the Catholic Church, a bishop, priest, or deacon may be dismissed from the clerical state as a penalty for certain grave offenses.
In an interview with KTNV, Rich Fitter, a man set to testify before the State Board of Examiners and who settled with the church, called Capparelli a "serial predator" and said he can't feel sorry for him.

"I don't want to sound cold, but the world is a safer place without him," he said.

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