55°
STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
Joseph Barbarino, now 58, said he was seeking the DNA evidence that wasn’t requested in his original trial in an effort to exonerate himself in the rape and killing of young Vincent at a deserted Lodi construction site in April 1972.
But Superior Court Judge James J. Guida said he didn’t consider the evidence “material to the issue of identification, because the evidence provided by several of the witnesses was overwhelming….Testimony of the medical examiner, several family members and by [brother] Michael Barbarino himself corroborated the events of the night of the murder.”
There was also blood evidence, the judge said, adding that DNA wouldn’t be conclusive because other family members played with the slain child and handled his clothing that day.
“Even if the DNA evidence identified other people, it wouldn’t void the facts that this defendant beyond all reasonable doubt committed this murder,” said Guida, who convicted Barbarino following a bench trial [no jury] four years ago.
Barbarino was already serving a 50-year prison sentence for raping an 11-year-old female relative in 2002 when he was tried before Guida under state juvenile statutes because he was 15 years old when the murder was committed.
Joseph Barbarino MUGSHOT
Guida sentenced him to 20 years, the maximum allowed under those statues.
That boosted Barbarino’s term to 62½ years before he can be paroled, assuring that he will die behind bars.
Barbarino smiled and eased back in his chair today as Guida, reciting evidence in the trial, noted that Vincent’s clothes had been removed, “folded as neatly as possible,” and placed beneath a trailer near a truck where his body was found.
“This said to me that the person who committed this horrendous crime was, in a warped way, caring for his brother,” the judge said.
Another brother testified that Joseph came home wearing a bloody T-shirt — seen by his mother — before he threw it into the washing machine, the judge noted.
Michael Barbarino (FILE PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
“When he was questioned by Detective Markowsky, he didn’t denied he committed the murder,” Guida said. “When he was asked about the blood on his shirt, he said ‘You’re never going to be able to prove it. You don’t know what happened then, you don’t have the f*cking sh*t, and Michael was only four then. You can’t use it against me’.”
Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said the cold case was cracked when investigators proved that Barbarino stabbed Vincent three times.
Brother Michael Barbarino, who was 4 then, testified that he tried to stop Joseph but was overpowered.
After that, he said, Joseph removed Vincent’s clothing, stuffed it under a nearby trailer and carried the body to a fuel truck. Police found the body in the truck’s cab about two hours later during a search that involved family members.
Case notes show that police found bruise marks on Michael’s neck, as well.
“Joe Joe” Barbarino was the primary suspect from the moment the nude body of then-missing Vincent was found.
He’d been stabbed three times across his stomach.
Joseph later failed a lie-detector test, but that’s inadmissible in court. Prosecutors had no knife, no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses.
But time, circumstance and evolving “C.S.I.”-type techniques to analyze evidence were brought into play.
Prosecutors also had Michael Barbarino — who recalled details from that fateful night — even though other members of the Barbarino family split strongly on opposite sides.
Many still lived in the same two-story duplex on Lafayette Place that they did when the boy suddenly went missing, only to be found dead two hours later.
Their sister, Ann Barbarino Crane, supported Joseph and insisted Michael concocted the murder tale as revenge against his brother for molesting him. Several years ago, Ann tipped off detectives that Michael was carrying a loaded gun — for which he ended up spending six years in prison.
With both brothers locked up at the same time, investigators planted a recording device on Michael, hoping to get Joseph to confess the murder to him. Michael, instead, told his brother he was wired.
Authorities who knew him said Joe Barbarino was a troubled kid sheltered by his mother, even though he bullied other neighborhood youngsters.
Michael, however, was willing to defend his dead brother’s memory and challenge Joseph, who married his ex-wife.
Michael Barbarino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that he endured years of therapy that turned him into a petty criminal. After offering to testify, he said, he was ostracized by his own family. Had his brother been locked up right away, he claims, his life would have been different.
“I fingered Joe Joe [to authorities] many years ago, but nothing ever happened,” he said. “He’s my brother, but I can’t stand behind him…. I don’t want to run anymore.”
He told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that he hoped his brother’s conviction would help turn his life around for good.
Last year, Michael Barbarino was sent to the county jail for 364 days for threatening to kill one female probation officer and going after another with a baseball bat (SEE: Ex-con who witnessed brother’s Lodi murder sent to jail for threatening probation officers).
* * * * * *
Records show:
Vincent Barbarino was first reported missing by his mother shortly before 10:30 p.m. April 5, 1972.
Two hours later, Vincent’s stabbed, nude body was found inside the cab of a red fuel truck a few blocks from the Barbarino home. Forty feet away, police found his clothes and bloodstains.
Michael Barbarino told authorities in 1988 that he saw the murder, pinning it on his brother. A grand jury was impaneled, but family members’ stories don’t add up.
Molinelli made cold cases a priority when he became prosecutor.
In 2006, investigators from his office arrested Joseph Barbarino on murder charges after reviewing the file and interviewing family members and friends, including some people who either hadn‘t been spoke to before or originally gave only brief statements.
During a search of the house, investigators reported finding letters in which Joseph Barbarino described raping the girl, for which he was later convicted.
Joseph Barbarino (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.
