Fortin could face 30 years to life for murder conviction Prosecution appeals for life without parole BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer NEW BRUNSWICK - Steven Fortin, who was found guilty on Nov. 29, 2007, in his second trial for the 1994 capital murder of Melissa Padilla in the Avenel section of Woodbridge Township, could be sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 30 years to be served. The 43-year-old former handyman from Carteret had been facing a sentence of death, but Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a bill on Dec. 17 that abolished the state's death penalty. In his first trial, in 2000, Fortin was found guilty of Padilla's murder and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. The New Jersey Supreme Court in a 4-2 decision overturned that conviction and death sentence in February 2004. On Feb. 14, 2008, state Superior Court Judge James Mulvihill, sitting in New Brunswick, heard motions from Assistant Prosecutors Keith Warburton and Christie Bevacqua to sentence Fortin to life without parole. Fortin's defense attorneys, Michael Priarone and Cathy Waldor, argued against sentencing their client to life without parole, citing the "ex post facto" clause - which means creating or imposing penalties after a crime is committed - since life without parole had not been written into state law until Aug. 22, 2000. "It [life without parole] did not exist at the time when this incident occurred [August 1994]," said Priarone. "[The prosecutors] can't take the possible disposition [of the sentence of life without parole] for murder cases [for crimes committed after Aug. 22, 2000] and apply it retroactively to Mr. Fortin." Warburton argued that the "ex post facto" clause would only apply in instances where the penalty that was written into law after the crime was committed, is more severe. "Life without parole is a lesser penalty than death, [which the state was seeking before the Legislature's decision to abolish it]," said Warburton. However, the judge agreed with the defense and cited that the penalty of life without parole came six years after Fortin killed Padilla on Aug. 11, 1994. Mulvihill said that to sentence Fortin to life without parole would be "ex post facto" sentencing, which, he said, is prohibited by the federal and state constitutions. The judge could sentence Fortin to an additional 20 years for the aggravated sexual assault charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and a minimum of 10 years. If the maximum sentence is imposed, Fortin would not be eligible for parole until he has served 40 years in prison. He would be 83 years old. The prosecutors immediately filed an appeal of the judge's decision. Sentencing is tentatively set for June 5. Fortin, who sat quietly with shackles around his wrists and ankles and wearing a tan jumpsuit with tan boots during the hearing, appeared upbeat, wishing defense co-counsel Cathy Waldor a "Happy Valentine's Day" before being led off by Department of Corrections officers. In Fortin's second trial, which lasted approximately three weeks, Fortin was also found guilty of first-degree aggravated sexual assault; however, the nineman, three-woman jury found Fortin not guilty of robbery of Padilla's pants and underwear, one of the cheese steaks she had purchased at the Quick Chek, and some change. Fortin was indicted on Sept. 6, 1995, and was charged with the first-degree murder of Padilla, who was 25 years old when she was killed onAug. 11, 1994. She had picked up some food for her four young children around 11 p.m. from a Quick Chek store on Route 1 and was walking back to the Gem Motel on Route 1, where she resided with her children and her boyfriend, Hector Fernandez. The motel is about a six-minute walk from the Quick Chek. Padilla's body was discovered naked from the waist down in a concrete pipe alongside Route 1. She had been brutally beaten about the face and head, resulting in a broken nose; she had been sexually assaulted and had bite marks on her chin and left breast, and she had been strangled to death. Police had exhausted all of their leads, and the case remained unsolved until the Maine State Police contacted Woodbridge Township police inquiring about Fortin in April 1995 because he was a township resident at the time. He was under investigation for the assault of a Maine state trooper. Fortin pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced in November 1995 to 20 years in a Maine prison. Fortin completed the Maine sentence on Feb. 11, 2008, after serving 13 years of the 20-year sentence. After being contacted by the Maine State Police, police in New Jersey learned that in August 1994 Fortin had been living at the Douglas Motel with Dawn Archer, his girlfriend of five months at the time, near the Quick Chek, and had made a purchase at the convenience store the day of Padilla's murder. Archer testified that she had an argument and physical altercation with Fortin in the parking lot of Bud's Hut, which is within five minutes of the crime scene; the altercation took place about an hour before Padilla's murder. In light of the similarities between the Maine state trooper assault in 1995 and Padilla's murder - sexual assault, beating about the face resulting in a broken nose, and bite marks to the chin and left breast - Woodbridge police traveled to Maine to question Fortin. Police did not uncover any forensic evidence linking Fortin to the Padilla murder. T he Supreme Court cited that at Fortin's first trial, the testimony of former FBI agent Robert Hazelwood concerning linkage analysis lacked sufficient scientific reliability to establish that the same perpetrator committed the Maine and New Jersey crimes. Also, the court found that Judge Joyce Munkacsi, who presided over the original trial and is now retired, did not ask the jurors if they could remain fair and impartial in the case after hearing testimony about the sexual assault in Maine. This is the second death Fortin has been found guilty of causing. In 1983, he pleaded guilty and received a manslaughter sentence for killing his brother over drugs in Middlesex County.