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So, too, was Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer, who said she’s still awaiting a response to a plea offer she made to Carlos Victoriano more than four months ago.
The same goes for the victim’s teenage son, who was injured trying to stop the March 2013 attack, and his younger brother, who has attended every court hearing in the case since then.
“I was in the hospital nine or 10 days,” said the victim, who was stabbed in the chest and abdomen. “He cut my son’s hand, and it still doesn’t work right.”
Things finally moved in the right direction yesterday, he said.
Bubbles, Hackensack
The victim was in the Bubbles Laundromat on Railroad Avenue at Sussex Street with his family when he noticed Victoriano arguing with his wife of five years.
“He was saying ‘You have to give me something’ and arguing about a credit card and a coffeemaker,” he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
“I went over and asked why he was talking to my wife like that. He said ‘I’m not talking to you.’
“I said, ‘She’s my wife, and if you’re talking to her you’re talking to me,” the husband said.
Victoriano left but returned a few minutes later with the knife, stabbing him and cutting his son, he said.
The victim said he and his wife came to court in Hackensack yesterday expecting to finally see progress in the case — and that’s what they got.
“I thought it was headed to trial,” Grootenboer, the assistant prosecutor, told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi. “Then (defense attorney Aaron Miller) candidly admitted to me last Thursday he had not had time to discuss the plea with me.”
The offer: 15 years in prison and dismissal of four other charges in exchange for a guilty plea by the 29-year-old Victoriano, of Kennedy Boulevard and 17th Street in Jersey City, to one count of attempted murder.
Conviction at a trial would expose him to a minimum of 30 years behind bars, not counting the additional charges: causing or attempting to cause serious bodily injury to the son, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (one for each victim) and illegal weapons possession.
DeAvila-Silebi pressed Miller for a commitment, saying that he could continue to negotiate a plea while the trial is pending.
After a recess to consult Jaclyn Medina, a co-counsel in the case and assistant director of the county Office of the Public Defender, Miller said they were ready to move forward.
The judge set a July 28 cutoff for a plea deal and a Nov. 3 trial date.
STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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