Newark cop can argue 'diminished capacity' at murder trial, judge rules

A Morris County judge will allow former Newark police officer John Formisano to establish a defense at trial that his altered mental state left him incapable of purposely shooting to death his estranged wife in 2019.

Judge Noah Franzblau, in a written decision filed May 13, denied prosecutors' bids to preclude Dr. Gerard Figurelli from taking the stand, stating that he believed the defense-appointed psychologist's testimony from April 28 would help supplement a diminished capacity defense at trial, which could take place this summer.

"There is a suggestion in the evidence that (Formisano's) faculties were affected thereby rendering (Formisano) incapable of purposeful or knowing conduct," Franzblau wrote.

Formisano is accused of firing multiple rounds at Christine Solaro-Formisano, 37, and injuring her boyfriend, Timothy Simonson. Police said Formisano was still in his police uniform, although off-duty, when he went inside the Mirror Place home he once shared with Solaro-Formisano, found Simonson and began shooting on July 14, 2019.

In April, Figurelli opined that Formisano had an "acute dissociative reaction" when he learned another man was inside his marital bedroom. Figurelli, who evaluated the former lieutenant multiple times, said he believed Formisano, when confronted with the upsetting discovery, was unable to control his emotional reaction when he began shooting.

Preexisting diagnoses of major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, as a result of his police work, left Formisano particularly vulnerable to experiencing such a reaction, Figurelli said.

Prosecutors sought to keep the expert's findings away from a jury, stating during the April hearing Figurelli's findings were not backed by any factual or evidentiary support and were not accepted within the scientific community. They also contended that Figurelli failed to connect Formisano's mental conditions to his mental state at the time of the crime.

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Without Franzblau's approval, Formisano's attorney Anthony Iacullo could not mention the defense to a jury.

Formisano is facing charges of murder and attempted murder. Should a jury find his state of mind was altered as a result of a mental defect, it does not mean Formisano is not guilty. Rather, the jury could consider a lesser charge, such as manslaughter. It differs from an insanity defense, where a jury could acquit a defendant.

'Rage just hit me'

Figurelli supported his conclusions by including a transcript of an interview he had with Formisano after the shooting — details that have not been released until now. The doctor opines it was this interview, along with other interviews with police, that forms the basis for a diminished capacity defense.

Formisano, who was living with his mother after he filed for divorce from his wife, said the night of the shooting he was leaving work and noticed that his daughter had left her glasses in his car, so he headed to the Jefferson home to drop them off, he said.

He called first but received no answer, so he walked into the home and up the stairs.

"Everything came at once," Formisano recalled to Figurelli. "She was in her bathrobe; I'm hearing movement in my bedroom, my bedroom door is closed; My children are in their bedroom. I went to charge the bedroom door. She got in between me and the door."

There had been an agreement she would not have another man in the home, Formisano claims, according to the report. Solaro-Formisano allegedly accused Formisano of setting up cameras in the house, suggesting he came over because he knew a man was there.

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Solaro-Formisano yelled "Call the police" and his daughter screamed for her mom, Formisano claims.

But when his estranged wife pushed him, "rage just hit me," he told Figurelli.

Formisano said he "blacked out," with his "spirit" outside his body and a view of his gun shooting, but not knowing how it was occurring. The man inside the room, he said, had a lightning bolt for a head. The next thing he knew, he was getting a "bird's eye view" from the grass outside and then an image of Solaro-Formisano falling.

"I don't get any sound," he told the psychologist, according to the report.

Figurelli opined that Formisano's inability to recall the actual shooting was consistent with someone diagnosed with PTSD and is known medically as psycho-traumatic amnesia. Memory loss from traumatic events can either be partial or total and is believed to be a result of a disruption between emotion and the part of the brain that controls memory, Figurelli said. The area of the brain that controls emotion is experienced as a state of "unreality" or "surreal," he added.

Dr. Louis Schlesinger, a psychologist obtained by prosecutors, agrees Formisano experienced a brief episode of derealization during the shooting, according to Franzblau's ruling. Schlesinger's complete findings, however, are not noted.

Formisano's attorney failed at a bid last summer from preventing a jury from hearing incriminating statements his client made to police, claiming errors had been made that violated his client's constitutional rights. Video from Formisano's interrogation after his arrest will be permitted at trial, a judge previously ruled.

Formisano, a 24-year veteran of the Newark Police Department, spent 10 months at Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton before his transfer to the Morris County jail. He rejected a plea deal of 40 years in prison in 2020.

Formisano will have a pretrial conference in early June.

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Jefferson NJ shooting: Judge OKs defense at murder trial