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Julio Pina-Catena “is not interested in plea negotiations,” his attorney, Ilene McFarlane said yesterday. “My client maintains his innocence.”
McFarlane said she intends to call an expert in the Santeria religion — which figured prominently in the previous case — during the trial.
Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi, in turn, set a Sept. 30 trial date.
Jurors in November returned not-guilty verdicts to lesser counts against Pina-Catena, 42, while finishing “hopelessly deadlocked” on charges of attempted murder, breaking and entering, possession of a weapon, several acts of vandalism, and concealing evidence to hinder his prosecution.
At the same, the jury cleared his roommate, Kenny Cabrera, of evidence destruction.
FILE PHOTO: Julio Pina-Catena during first trial last November (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
Pina-Catena, who has remained held on $750,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail since his September 2011 arrest, looked considerably thinner during yesterday’s hearing in Hackensack than he did during last year’s trial.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer said revenge over a failed romance more than seven years ago prompted the Cuban-born Pina-Catena to break into the home, trash the place and attack his former lover’s father on May 4, 2011.
The vicious assault left Nelson Martin, then 57, with a fractured skull and eye socket and no memory of the incident. After being hospitalized for 10 days, he had to spend several weeks in a rehabilitation facility.
Martin’s house was stained nearly everywhere with blood — including the living room, an entry hall and a soaked couch where he was found, Grootenboer said yesterday.
In addition, his daughter was targeted for hateful messages, with photographs broken out of their frames and the eyes scratched out.
There were also personal items of a sexual nature exposed and symbols that the prosecutor called Santeria warnings left behind, Grootenboer said during the trial. A key piece of evidence was a Santeria candle that Martin’s son found lighted in the living room, she said.
There were, however, no items of direct evidence at the crime scene: no DNA, no fingerprints, and no eyewitnesses. Nor did anyone find the blunt object that the assailant used to beat the victim, who was unable to testify.
Detectives immediately homed in on Adrian Martin’s acquaintances — Pina-Catena, in particular, who was once a close friend and lived with the Martin family.
However, Pina-Catena’s previous defense lawyer pointed to another boyfriend the victim’s son broke up with a little over three years ago who allegedly sent him threatening emails.
Although that man had an alibi — he was in New York City at work at the time of the attack — they said he had a “friend” who was a likely suspect.
STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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