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Jose Carrero describes role in Long Branch cold case murders

Jose Carrero describes role in Long Branch cold case murders of Ana Mejia and Nicholas Connors.

Thomas P. Costello, Asbury Park Press

FREEHOLD – Juan Garcia reported he was the last person to see Ana Mejia alive, around 9 p.m. on Dec. 7, 1994.

But a phone company employee told a detective investigating Mejia’s murder that he saw Garcia — a co-defendant of Mejia in a cocaine case who has since died — outside the slain woman’s apartment in Long Branch the next day, less than two hours before the discovery of her body was reported to police.

That revelation came out Wednesday as the double murder trial of Dolores Morgan and her son, Ted Connors, moved into the defense stage.

Neither defendant testified.

Morgan, 69, and Connors, 49, both of Delray, Florida, are on trial in the murders of Mejia, who was Morgan’s daughter and Connors’ sister, and Nicholas “Bruce’’ Connors, Morgan’s husband and Ted Connors adoptive father.

Long Branch family murders trial starts: ‘Time wears away secrets’ prosecutor tells jury

What happened

Mejia, 25, was found stabbed to death in her apartment on Dec. 8, 1994. Her boyfriend’s sister reported finding her body about 2 p.m. that day.

‘Mom is sleeping’: That’s what victim’s child said at Long Branch murder scene, witness testifies

Nicholas Connors, 51, was discovered shot to death in the Connors family home on Van Dyke Place in Long Branch on May 14, 1995. Morgan, then known as Dolores Connors, reported discovering her husband’s body when she came home from working a night shift.

The state’s star witness, Jose Carrero, 50, of Jackson, testified at the start of the trial that Morgan orchestrated both murders, enlisting him and Ted Connors to carry them out. Carrero testified that Morgan wanted Mejia dead because she feared Mejia — arrested in a State Police cocaine sting days before her death — would become a police informant and snitch on the drug dealing she was involved in with her son.

A retired state trooper previously testified that Garcia was one of the intermediaries that led him to the target of the cocaine sting — Nicholas Vargas, who was Mejia’s boyfriend. Vargas, Garcia and another intermediary were arrested along with Mejia in the sting operation that led to the seizure of a pound of cocaine and $138,400, John Sullivan, the retired trooper, testified two weeks ago, at the onset of the state’s case.

Throughout the trial, defense attorneys have insinuated that others had motive to murder Mejia, who consented to the search that led to the seizure of the drugs and cash.

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Focus on Garcia

Ted Connors’ attorney, Jonathan Petty, focused on one of them — Garcia — in his questioning of retired Long Branch detective Ann Samuels, the only witness called to testify for the defense after the state rested its case Wednesday.

Samuels said she was assigned to canvas the neighborhood for potential suspects after Mejia was murdered, and one of the people she talked to was Garcia. Being questioned by Petty, Samuels acknowledged she took a statement from Garcia at which he told her where he was at lunchtime on the day Mejia’s body was discovered.

Afterward, a Bell Atlantic employee came forward to her with information he thought would be helpful to the case, Samuels said. She acknowledged the employee, Craig Reilly, told her he knew Garcia from going to his luncheonette, working in the area in a Long Branch public works truck and from doing a telephone installation at Garcia’s house.

“He told you that he was certain that Mr. Garcia was at the doorway of Ana Mejia’s house at lunchtime on Dec. 8, 1994?” Petty asked Samuels.

Samuels said she didn’t remember, but after reading Reilly’s written statement, she said that he had. 

Tarot cards predicted a death: Days later, Nicholas Connors was killed

She further acknowledged Reilly telling her that Garcia was walking fast and that he must have gone into Mejia’s house, otherwise he would have honked his horn and waved. Reilly subsequently picked out Garcia in a photo array as the man he saw that day, Samuels testified.

After receiving that information from Reilly, Samuels said she again questioned Garcia about his whereabouts at lunchtime that day, and the second time, he changed his story.

Samuel’s testimony did not reveal either version of what Garcia told her about his whereabouts.

Samuels, being cross-examined by Meghan Doyle, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, said Reilly identified the person he saw that day as a Hispanic male whose name he didn’t know, whose back was to him.

Petty countered with what Reilly told Samuels about the man that he saw: “I recognized him right away.”

Samuels acknowledged Reilly had said that.

Defense attorneys called no further witnesses. Attorneys are expected to sum up their cases for the jury today.

The trial is before Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley. 

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues, unsolved mysteries and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at [email protected].

Source: Asbury Park

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