THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412150424
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Prosecutors in New Jersey have apparently lost the sole piece of evidence linking a Virginia Beach man arrested last year to the robbery and slaying of a New Jersey music-store owner more than 13 years ago. Police there say the case could be ruined.
Police said fingerprints on a piece of glass at the Bergen County, N.J., store eventually led authoritie to the Stumpy Lake home of a Virginia Beach man, Paul E. Mackey, who was charged with the murder.
That piece of glass, and the fingerprints on it, have disappeared, The Record in Hackensack, N.J., reported this week.
John Booth, former police chief of Fairview, N.J., told The Record, ``That piece of glass is the whole basis of the case.''
Booth was one of the detectives who investigated the robbery and slaying of a 27-year-old musician and store owner, Carl Ferrini, who was shot once with a
``I'd like to think we came this far after all this time and did everything possible to solve this,'' Booth told The Record. ``But something like this happening is unbelievable.''
Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy told The Record that the missing evidence should pose no problems, and his office plans to introduce photographs of the glass and copies of the fingerprints.
Defense attorney David Fronefield said Wednesday by phone he doesn't believe photographs would be enough to convict Mackey, who has maintained innocence since his arrest last year.
``I'm not an expert, but I don't know if that will be sufficient,'' Fronefield said. ``We certainly have the right to have an independent examination, and I don't know if that can happen now.''
Fronefield said he understands the missing glass is the only evidence that police used to link Mackey to the crime in New Jersey, Fronefield said. Mackey denies being in Fairview when the crime happened, Fronefield said.
Frank Benedetto, a Bergen County sheriff's department captain, reopened the case last year after talking with Booth. Benedetto entered the killer's fingerprints into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS. The system, a computerized storage bank of fingerprints that can match people and their unique prints, was not available when the music teacher was slain.
Early last year, New York authorities notified Benedetto that the prints from the music store matched Mackey's.
Mackey's prints were entered into AFIS after he was convicted later of an unrelated crime, police said.
Mackey had recently separated when he moved into the home on Chesterbrook Drive across from Stumpy Lake Golf Course in December 1993, with his three children. Neighbors said he was unemployed and drew a disability check because he had been injured in a car accident. They also said he was generally pleasant and kept his lawn neatly trimmed.
After New Jersey authorities were told of the fingerprint match, they searched their state and neighboring New York for Mackey, but didn't find him.
Police then ran a credit check on Mackey, which turned up the Virginia Beach address.
On June 29, 1991, local detectives and federal agents ended a weeklong surveillance Mackey's home by arresting him.
Then, Virginia Beach homicide Detective Darrell Jackson said, ``I don't think he knew we were looking for him. I think he figured it had been forgotten. When I told him he was under arrest for murder, his knees buckled.''
Neighbors were stunned when Mackey was arrested.
Fahy, the prosecutor, told The Record he doesn't know what happened to the evidence.
``We're trying to figure out what happened and to find the glass,'' he said. ``We'd like to have it back.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Paul Mackey denies being in Fairview, N.J., during the crime.
by CNB