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Over the course of four years, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer said, Battinelli stole $75,000 from Michael A. Murphy before shooting his partner of 18 years with a .22-caliber rifle in January 2010.
Defense attorney Brian J. Neary characterized the cash transactions at G&M Wholesale Florist as “a lot more fluid, a lot more cash-oriented, based on personal relationships.
Thomas Battanelli during openings of his murder trial today in Superior Court in Hackensack (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
“It’s not skimming or theft,” Neary told jurors. “It’s the way business is done in that industry.”
Garfield detectives and investigators from the prosecutor’s office “used a bad investigative technique” in fingering their suspect, the defense attorney added.
“It’s Battinelli from the beginning,” he said.
As a result, Neary said, “the wrong man is charged with this terrible crime, the murder of his friend.”
A delivery man for the business found Murphy’s body and “literally ran across Midland Avenue to Garfield Police headquarters across the street,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time.
Neary told the jurors today that the driver had immigration issues and was in hot water with Murphy for a series of flat tires.
Murphy had questioned him about the flats that morning before he left to take a delivery to Glen Rock, he noted.
Battinelli not only had “motive, means and opportunity” — he was the only person left in the building with his long-time business partner, Michael Murphy, when the driver and another left that morning, Grootenboer countered.
After the shooting, she said, Battinelli drove across town to the City Hall on a “non-emergency errand” to buy parking passes, she said.
“By his own admission, Thomas Battinelli was the last person to see Michael Murphy,” the prosecutor said. “It didn’t take long for Battinelli, an experienced hunter, to kill his unsuspecting friend.”
A Garfield police dispatcher later testified that Battinelli was still at the City Hall when they called him to report that Murphy had been found dead.
The murder weapon was found in the walk-in refrigerator at G&M under a pile of decorative branches, Grootenboer said.
Battinelli bought the Browning .22 lever-action rifle at Ramsey Outdoor, she told jurors.
When a Garfield police sergeant found it, she said, “the trigger was in the locked back position indicating it had been fired. It had one spent .22 caliber shell casing inside, and one .22 caliber bullet.
“The bullet had a “B” stamp on the bottom of it. On January 6, 2010 when investigators searched Thomas Battinelli’s house, they found the same ammunition there.”
Subsequent testing turned up Battinelli’s right, middle fingerprint on the gun.
Battanelli told investigators he hadn’t seen the gun in several years after giving it to an employee who eventually moved to Florida.
However, Grootenboer said the employee was in Florida the day of the murder and said he never had the weapon.
Battanelli, 55, owned 16% of the business but had inside contacts relied upon by Murphy, a CPA who was majority owner, authorities said.
Superior Court Judge Donald R. Venezia said he expects the trial to take several weeks, possibly through May 15.
Battinelli, meanwhile, remains free on $750,000 bail.
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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