Years after Colts Neck mansion murders, Paul Caneiro's trial still facing delays

FREEHOLD - Paul J. Caneiro's trial in the Colts Neck mansion murders of his brother's family was scheduled to begin in June, but because of delays in a crucial, pretrial hearing, the start of the trial is expected to be pushed back into the summer.

Caneiro, 57, of Ocean Township, has been in jail five years, four months and seven days awaiting trial in the November 2018 murders of his brother, sister-in-law, and the couple's two young children, Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley said at a conference in the case on Tuesday.

Despite that, Deputy Assistant Public Defender Michael Wicke told the judge at the conference that Caneiro's June 3 trial date is not a realistic one.

"We certainly want to get this trial done,'' Wicke said, but he added that his client wants to see that the case is handled properly.

The only thing standing in the way of a trial is a pretrial hearing on the admissibility of DNA evidence that was analyzed using cutting edge technology that has not yet been declared scientifically reliable in a New Jersey court.

A hearing on the scientific reliability of the technology was scheduled to take place during the weeks of Feb. 26 and March 4, but the hearing has not yet happened because the defense sought to expand the proceeding to consider additional DNA samples beyond those that were originally analyzed with the new technology.

Originally at issue were 13 DNA samples that were analyzed by Bode Technology, a private DNA laboratory in Virginia, using a cutting-edge computer program known as STRmix.

STRmix employs a method known as probabilistic genotyping, which is designed to examine small or mixed DNA samples, but has not yet been ruled reliable in a New Jersey court.

During delays in setting up a hearing on the technology, the New Jersey State Police began using an updated version of the STRmix software program in its lab, and prosecutors sent two additional samples from the case to the state police lab to analyze using the program.

Just before the hearing on the technology was set to take place at the end of February, Wicke asked for an adjournment so his expert could examine the updated software used by the state police. Wicke argued that the hearing should also encompass the reliability of the updated software.

Oxley, citing ongoing delays, denied the request and ruled that the hearing would only consider the reliability of the software program used by Bode. The Public Defender's Office appealed Oxley's ruling, and the state Supreme Court, in a decision made public Monday, ordered the hearing to also include the software use by the state police lab.

At Tuesday's conference, attorneys discussed making arrangements for the defense expert to examine the software utilized by the state police lab.

Oxley scheduled a conference in the case for April 8 to discuss scheduling the pretrial hearing on the STRmix software.

The Public Defender's Office is seeking to exclude DNA evidence analyzed by the software. It claims in court papers that the STRmix probabilistic genotyping program "pushes the bounds of testing far past what scientists 'generally accept.'"

More: Paul Caneiro gets trial date in Colts Neck mansion murders of brother's family

Prosecutors say the evidence links Caneiro to the murders of his brother, Keith, 50, his sister-in-law, Jennifer, 45, his niece, Sophia, 8, and nephew, Jesse, 11.

Oxley said it’s likely however he rules in the pretrial hearing, his ruling will be appealed. The outcome will have statewide implications.

"That will take us into the heart of the summer - July or August,'' Oxley said, referring to the trial.

Prosecutors allege Paul Caneiro was motivated by greed to commit the murders and set fire to the victims' Colts Neck mansion after Keith, his brother and business partner, discovered he was stealing from the companies they co-owned.

Prosecutors allege that Paul Caneiro, after committing the murders and setting the mansion on fire, went home and started a fire at his own home in Ocean Township to throw off investigators and make it look like the extended Caneiro family was being targeted by violent criminals.

Hours after the fire was reported at Paul Caneiro's home, emergency personnel responded to a slow-burning fire at the mansion in Colts Neck on Nov. 21, 2018. There, they found Keith Caneiro's body on the front lawn of the sprawling estate on Willow Brook Road. Keith Caneiro had been shot four times in the head and once in the back, according to police documents.

Inside the mansion, police found the bodies of Jennifer Caneiro and the two children, who were all repeatedly stabbed and badly burned. Jennifer Caneiro also had been shot in the head, according to police documents.

Paul Caneiro was charged within days of the murders and has been in the Monmouth County Jail ever since.

In addition to four counts of murder, he is charged with two counts of arson and theft of more than $75,000 from his brother's family. He also is charged with insurance fraud, accused of collecting disability benefits after a car accident while continuing to work and having his paycheck issued to his wife.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Colts Neck family murders: June trial in question for Paul Caneiro