Witness testifies to potential motive in slaying retrial of Wood-Ridge man

HACKENSACK — The prosecution believes that the $11,000 that Daniel Rochat owed his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Christina Salito, was his motive for killing real estate agent Barbara Vernieri in September 2012.

Rochat, of Wood-Ridge, is accused of brutally beating and setting fire to the 70-year-old Vernieri, someone he had known since childhood, on Sept. 14, 2012. He was convicted in 2017, but the decision was overturned by an appellate court in 2022.

Salito, who testified Wednesday morning, told the court the pair had met in May 2011 and had a relationship that lasted until about January 2012. During that time, Rochat asked Salito to lend him money to pay off a credit card in August 2011.

Salito said they had multiple conversations about money because she wasn't comfortable giving him a loan. She said she agreed to lend him the money but she would pay the credit card company directly. Salito said she wrote a $9,800 check to the credit card company.

A month later, Rochat asked to borrow $500 to help with a mechanical problem on his boat, which he promised to pay back when he got his next paycheck. In January 2012, Rochat borrowed an additional $500, but Salito said she couldn't recall what it was for. Salito said Rochat had lost his job and was unemployed around January 2012.

They mutually agreed to stop seeing each other, but when Salito went on a business trip to London in March 2012, she invited Rochat along with the understanding that she would pay for half of his airfare, tours and meals, which totaled $719, and he would pay her back.

In total, Rochat owed Salito $11,519, and she told the court she never indicated that the money was a gift and she had set up a date for Rochat to pay her back the $9,800 she paid to the credit card company.

After the London trip, Salito and Rochat broke up and had very minimal contact until July 2012, when Rochat invited Salito to his parents' shore house in Toms River.

Several days before Vernieri's death, on Sept. 10, Salito and Rochat broke up again and met up at Blondie's Sports Bar in New York City so Rochat could return Salito's apartment key and several other items. Salito told the court she told Rochat they weren't fit for each other and that the outstanding debt Rochat had with her was "too uncomfortable to continue communication."

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Salito said she spoke to Rochat on the phone on Sept. 11 around 7 p.m. and that he told her he wanted to work on himself and move past the situation he was in and wanted to work on getting a better job and lifestyle so they could potentially communicate again.

According to Salito, she told him it was a good idea for him to work on himself to figure out what was best for him and that she would do the same, but she wasn't looking to date anyone and didn't know if getting together was an option.

During cross-examination, Salito acknowledged that it was more than the money that led to their breakup, including her thinking at one point that Rochat was cheating on her.

Kristin Pechow, who said she met Rochat when they were children at tennis camp and reconnected in their 20s, told the court she saw Rochat the afternoon Vernieri was killed and he asked her if he could borrow $200, and asked where he could donate a pair of shoes.

Pechow said she had been dogsitting at her parents' home in Ridgewood, and she and Rochat talked on Sept. 13, 2012, about meeting later that night for a drink but mutually canceled their plans.

Instead, Pechow said, she saw him the next day, Sept. 14, 2012. She couldn't recall who had reached out first but said he showed up at about 3 p.m. in his black pickup truck and they spent time on the back deck.

During the visit, Pechow said, Rochat received a phone call, and she recognized his father's voice. She said Rochat put the phone on speaker, not something she remembers him doing before, and his father said something had happened to someone in the real estate office. Vernieri was a real estate agent at Kurgan-Bergen Realtors, partly owned by Rochat's father, Gene.

She said they drove to Citibank on Route 17 and she withdrew $200 to lend to Rochat.

Before Rochat left, Pechow said, he asked where he could donate shoes and showed her a pair of black dress shoes. She said she told him there was a restaurant with a donation bin between her parents' home and his parents' home.

During cross-examination, Pechow said Rochat said what had happened was horrible and he couldn't believe it, but she didn't know he was talking about Vernieri at the time. She said the conversation happened toward the end of the visit, as she was leaving to go to dinner with her aunt. When asked by Rochat's defense attorney, Anthony Pope, whether she saw any scratches on Rochat, Pechow said she did not.

Pechow noted that several days after Vernieri's killing, Rochat asked to stay at her parents' house but she said no. She said she had spoken to the police a day or two before but police didn't say Rochat was a suspect in Vernieri's killing. She said she couldn't recall what else they asked her about.

A Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective testified after Pechow and Salito.

The trial is expected to continue next week.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Wood-Ridge NJ man's retrial in slaying case has witness testifying