Judge upholds 300-year sentence for man in Jersey City family?s killing


Published: Monday, June 13, 2011, 3:10 AM
By Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal

The 300-year prison sentence meted out to the man convicted of brutally killing four members of a Jersey City family in 2005 has been upheld after the defendant argued four life terms was excessive.

?Suffice it to say, the aggregate sentence does not shock the judicial conscious,? states the ruling on the appeal filed by Edward McDonald, who was convicted in March 2008 of the felony murder of Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their two daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9.

Each victim was stabbed multiple times while bound and gagged with duct tape in their Oakland Avenue home on Jan. 11, 2005, during a home invasion and robbery. The bodies of the slaughtered family were found days later after concerned relatives contacted police, who climbed into the home through a window.



Edward McDonald is lead away in handcuffs after being found guilty of the felony murder of the Armanious family, Jersey City, Thursday, March 20, 2008.

?The imposition of consecutive sentences is especially suitable when a defendant?s crimes involve multiple deaths,? the appellate ruling states. ?Regardless of whether he himself killed any of the victims, he remained in the home and continued his participation in the underlying felonies during the entire time four people were brutally and repeatedly stabbed to death.?

In his confession, McDonald said Monica pulled off her blindfold and he and an accomplice slaughtered the family because they feared they had been recognized. McDonald was the family?s upstairs tenant. He was tied to the crime by his use of the family?s ATM card after the killings.

When police entered the home they found Monica?s body drenched in blood in the bathroom with her neck slit. The girl had 11 wounds to her neck, chest and face, and eight wounds on her arms, wrist and hand, the ruling states.
Hossam Armanious had a butcher knife protruding from a shoulder and there was a deep wound to his neck, as well as three torture wounds to his face, according to the ruling.
Amal Garas was stabbed in her throat twice. Her trachea and major blood vessels were severed; while Sylvia Armanious had eleven knife wounds, most of them in the area of her neck, the ruling says.

The May 13 appellate court ruling upheld the sentence meted out in July 2008 by Hudson County Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan.

The charges against McDonald?s alleged accomplice were dropped after McDonald refused to testify against him following his own conviction. The charges were dismissed without prejudice and can be reinstated.

?The investigation continues,? said Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D?Andrea, who prosecuted McDonald.

Heights man convicted in 2007 of manslaughter in friend's death flees halfway house, making addition of years to his prison sentence likely, officials say

Wednesday, December 01, 2010
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City man who fatally shot a friend after a night of drinking in Hoboken in 2006 was serving a five-year prison term when he escaped from a halfway house in Newark on Thanksgiving Day, officials said.

Angelo J. Miranda, 29, of Thorne Street at Columbia Avenue, remains at large, officials said yesterday.

On July 13, 2007, Miranda pleaded guilty to the reckless manslaughter of Jerald Schwartz, 31, of Ho-Ho-Kus, and was sentenced on Nov. 30, 2007, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.

Miranda was transferred from prison facility to a Newark halfway house on Nov. 17 and he went missing on Nov. 25.

After a night of touring Hoboken's bars on Sept. 6, 2006, the pair went back to Miranda's home, where the drinking continued with beer and cognac, DeFazio said at the time.

At around 3 a.m., one of the two men took out a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun and they may have been struggling over it when it went off, DeFazio said.

DeFazio said he doesn't believe Miranda should have been housed in a halfway house.

"Under these circumstances, in our opinion, it is clearly unacceptable that he was moved to a halfway house, since he is a violent offender that used a firearm," DeFazio said.

State Department of Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer said the law allows prisoners within 24 months of parole eligibility to be moved into a halfway house.

"He had the chance to succeed, and he chose to fail," Fedkenheuer said yesterday. "He will be caught, and it will be incumbent on the Essex County Prosecutor to charge him with escape, and that will add an additional three to five years to his sentence."

Anyone with information about Miranda's whereabouts should call the Department of Corrections Special Investigation Unit-Fugitive Unit at (800) 523-3829, or the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office's Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345.

SANCHEZ OFF HOOK
Inability to use ex-pal's confession dooms 2nd Armanious killings trial

Friday, February 06, 2009
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER


All charges against Hamilton Sanchez in the murder of Jersey City's Armanious family were dropped yesterday in the wake of his former codefendant, who is serving 300 years in prison for the killings, refusing to testify against him.

"He was obviously very emotional, tearful," said attorney Daniel Welsh of the moment prior to yesterday's hearing when he told Sanchez the state was about to drop the charges.

"From the first day I met him, he said, 'I didn't do it. I don't care, I'll fight as long as I have to fight.'

"In my eyes he never committed these crimes and he showed a lot of courage that a lot of other people would not have under the circumstances by not folding," Welsh added.

Sanchez has been in jail awaiting trial since his arrest in March 2005 at a halfway house where he was finishing a federal drug sentence. He remains in custody on a federal detainer on the charge of having escaped from the halfway house, jail officials said. Welsh said Sanchez has no criminal charges pending against him.

Sanchez and McDonald were arrested in March 2005 and charged with killing Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their two daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9, during a botched robbery on Jan. 11, 2005.

McDonald was convicted of the felony murder of each family member last year. He implicated Sanchez in a video-taped confession, but the video wasn't admissible as evidence against Sanchez unless McDonald took the stand.

At a hearing Monday a judge asked McDonald if he would testify against Sanchez in the trial that was scheduled to begin Feb. 9 and McDonald reiterated he would not.

"Our case depended on McDonald," Hudson County First Assistant Prosecutor Guy Gregory acknowledged yesterday. "We had then and we still have reason to believe he was involved."

The charges against Sanchez were dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors can seek to indict him again.

Gregory's office is awaiting a ruling in a case before the New Jersey Supreme Court in which prosecutors asked the justices to rule that in cases in which a witness has been threatened, statements made by the witness should be allowed into evidence even if the witness refuses to testify.

Welsh said he is not worried about the court since prosecutors would need evidence that McDonald was threatened on behalf of Sanchez, which he said doesn't exist.

When prosecutors sought an adjournment in the trial at the appellate level it was based on a statement McDonald's mother made in July in which she said she was approached by a man she thought was a friend of Sanchez and he said something vaguely threatening, Welsh said.

A Superior Court judge already ruled the statement was not credible, the defense attorney said.

"The fact of the matter is, I've never seen a case that has been so exhaustively investigated over a four-year period by federal, state and local officials, and at the end of all that, all they have is McDonald's statement," Welsh said.

=============================
Slain mom's uncle resigned to process
Friday, February 06, 2009

As Al Garas, the uncle of slain Armanious family member Amal Garas, prepared to call family members last night to tell them the charges against Hamilton Sanchez had been dropped, he grew philosophical.

"If he is guilty, he should be indicted, but if he is innocent, he should be left alone," said Garas who attended nearly every hearing in the trial of Sanchez' former codefendant, Edward McDonald. "It doesn't seem to me it was one person. We will see how it goes."

Sanchez and McDonald were arrested in March 2005 and charged with killing Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their two daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9, during a botched robbery on Jan. 11, 2005. The victims were stabbed multiple times while bound and gagged with duct tape. Their bodies were found days later when concerned relatives went to police.

McDonald, the Armanious family's upstairs tenant, was tracked down because he used the Armanious family bank card after the killings.

The murders made headlines around the world and tensions rose between the Muslim and Egyptian communities in Jersey City as speculation grew that the killings had their roots in religion. The Armanious family is Coptic Christian. Tensions dissipated as prosecutors reiterated there was no such connection.

MICHAELANGELO CONTE

Killer to judge: I still won't testify

Thursday, February 05, 2009
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The man convicted of killing all four members of Jersey City's Armanious family in 2005 has again refused to testify against his codefendant, even though he is being given immunity.

Prosecutors got a grant of immunity for killer Edward McDonald through the state Attorney General's Office, but at a hearing Monday, McDonald said that didn't matter, officials said yesterday.

Prosecutors had hoped to persuade McDonald to testify against his accused accomplice Hamilton Sanchez, but McDonald's refusal is no surprise. His attorney, Ray Beam, said in court last year that even if granted immunity, "My client has told me he will not testify today, tomorrow, in 25 years, whatever it would be, at his trial or at any other trial."

At Monday's hearing, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan asked McDonald if he was willing to testify against Sanchez in Sanchez's upcoming trial and McDonald reiterated that he would not.

Sanchez and McDonald were arrested in March 2005 and charged with killing Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their two daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9, during a botched robbery on Jan. 11, 2005.

McDonald was convicted of the felony murder of all four family members early last year and sentenced to 300 years in prison.

The immunity offer was in connection with any retrial of McDonald, who has appealed his felony murder convictions and could be tried again on a murder charge that resulted in a hung jury, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. Nothing he testifies to in Sanchez's trial would be used against him in those cases.

Sanchez has been jailed since March 2005 while he awaits trial, and has steadfastly maintained his innocence. Jury selection is expected to begin Monday, but prosecutors again asked - and were denied - a postponement by Callahan.

Prosecutors were hopeful the Supreme Court would rule that statements of a witness who refuses to testify in court can be admitted if it's shown the witness has been intimidated. That would allow them to introduce statements by McDonald into evidence.

McDonald's refusal to testify is seen by many as a big blow to the prosecution's case, since little physical evidence against either Sanchez or McDonald came out at McDonald's trial.

The prosecution has appealed the ruling, but unless Callahan's decision is overturned, jury selection will go forward Monday.

Each member of the Armanious family was stabbed multiple times while bound and gagged with duct tape in their Oakland Avenue home in January 2005. Their bodies were found days later in their two-family residence when concerned relatives went to police. McDonald was the Armanious family's upstairs tenant.

Sanchez says he was still in halfway house when 4 slain

Tuesday, June 03, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

One of the men charged in the 2005 quadruple murder of a Jersey City family was convicted in March, but three years after being arrested, the other defendant is still waiting impatiently in jail for his day in court.

"Let's stop the game-playing and let's start this trial," Hamilton Sanchez, 32, said during an exclusive interview with The Jersey Journal at the Hudson County jail, where he has been held since his arrest 38 months ago.

In March, Edward McDonald was convicted of felony murder and other charges in the killing of Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their two daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9. The four were brutally slaughtered during the robbery of their home on Oakland Avenue in the Jersey City Heights on Jan. 11, 2005.

Sanchez was charged after McDonald told investigators that Sanchez took part in the killings - a claim Sanchez vehemently denies.

"I'm sure the Armanious family wants to know the truth because obviously they have been lied to about me," said Sanchez in the small cinder block visiting room that has one steel door to the visitors waiting room and another to the jail. "I know that if there is a trial, I will be home right after.

"Are they confident?" Sanchez asked of the prosecution team. "No, because they keep on stalling."

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said he didn't want to say much about the Sanchez case, but asked, "Would you really expect any other reaction from Hamilton Sanchez? Clearly, it's not his decision to make."

Sanchez may be waiting a long time to stand trial.

Convicted in March of felony murder of three members of the Armanious family, McDonald will go on trial Thursday on a weapons charge related to the murders. Then a sentencing date will be set for the felony murders, with a sentence between 120 and 300 years in prison likely.

And after that, McDonald will be retried in the murder of the fourth Armanious family member, Monica, a charge that resulted in a hung jury in March.

Then Sanchez will have his day in court.

Until then it's very likely Sanchez will remain in jail because he hasn't come up the $10 million bail.

"I've been through hell and back, but everybody in here kind of knows I'm innocent," said Sanchez. "In the beginning everybody was against me, the guards, the inmates, everybody.

"The case that I had was enough to make any man go crazy or commit suicide. I guess God's been on my side protecting me. Everyone was out to get me."

Sanchez said his first 17 months in the Kearny jail were spent in segregation for his own protection.

"You're alone, you're locked in, but it's nothing but murderers and gang members," Sanchez said. "Segregation is worse. That's where everyone gets hurt."

Sanchez is sure he'll walk out a free man as soon as the trial is %%slug%%ARMA31JM%%cat%%nho%%ecat%%1 jcritt

over, citing the lack of evidence linking him to the crime scene.

Sanchez says he was at a halfway house, where he was serving the remainder of a 10-year sentence on a 1995 drug conviction, at the time of the murders. There's documentation, he says - cell phone records and the halfway house sign-in sheet - to prove he couldn't have killed the Armanious family.

Sanchez says it was convenient for McDonald to finger him as an accomplice when police found a note in McDonald's apartment with his name on it.

"I think they (investigators) said 'Was Hamilton there?' and in his mind he's thinking, 'They're not onto whoever else was there with me so if they want Hamilton, yeah, Hamilton.'"

Asked if he believes McDonald is protecting others, he said "Has to be. Has to be."

Al Garas, Amal Garas's uncle, said yesterday that he's confident Sanchez is guilty and said prosecutors have told the Garas family there is enough evidence.

"Why would the guy (McDonald) implicate him if he wasn't guilty, what could be the reason?" said Garas.

Sanchez met McDonald while both were serving time at Fort Dix for drug convictions in the 1990s and they remained close.

"He is actually a really nice guy, that's why I stayed in touch with him," Sanchez said of McDonald. "Most of the Spanish and black guys, I get in trouble with them. So this guy seems like a nice little, you know, white kid."

Sanchez said McDonald seemed like the kind of person he should associate with on the outside. Now, he says: "It's the biggest mistake I ever made to be friends with this guy. I would never think he was a murderer like this. To this day I can't even picture him doing this."

It is believed that a successful prosecution will require McDonald to testify against Sanchez, something Sanchez says won't happen.

"He's not going to take the stand," Sanchez speculated. "What's the deal, 120 years if you testify? If he don't take the stand, then I don't exist."

Quadruple slay suspect guilty of 4 counts of felony murder, not guilty of murder

Jersey Journal
by Michaelangelo Conte
Thursday March 20, 2008

The jury in the quadruple murder case of Edward McDonald today delivered four guilty verdicts for felony murder - one for each member of the Armanious family who was killed - but acquitted him of murder.

McDonald, 28, faces up to 300 years, or four consecutive life terms. If the judge sentences him to serve the terms concurrently - which would be 75 years - he would be eligible for parole after 63 years and nine months.

A felony murder conviction means the jury holds McDonald responsible for the killings because they occurred during the commission of a felony but did not find that he killed the victims with his own hand.

The jury found McDonald guilty of burglary, a felony, for entering the house.

McDonald was charged along with an alleged accomplice of stabbing the family to death during a botched robbery in 2005.

The verdicts after 11 grueling days of deliberations, during which the jury asked for a magnifying glass and a yard stick and included an admonishment from state Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan that they were not to try to investigate the crimes themselves.

McDonald's alleged accomplice, Hamilton Sanchez, is scheduled to be tried next.

The jury of five men and seven women told Callahan earlier today that they were "completely deadlocked" before coming back and saying that in fact they had reached verdicts on all but five of the more than 35 counts against McDonald.

McDonald was charged with killing of all four members of the Armanious family in their Oakland Avenue home in Jersey City in January 2005.

Check back for more updates as the jury delivers its findings on the rest of the charges.

McDonald jury receives more instructions from judge
by Michaelangelo Conte
Wednesday March 19, 2008, 12:50 PM

Jurors in the Edward McDonald murder trial today asked to be re-instructed a second time on the law regarding reckless manslaughter. McDonald was summoned to the courtroom for the short hearing in which Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan explained the law to the jurors.

Yesterday the jury asked for and received instructions on the charges of aggravated manslaughter and reckless manslaughter.

The jury is in its 10th day of deliberations. McDonald is charged in the murder of Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their daughters, Monica, 9, and Sylvia, 16, in their Jersey City home on Jan. 11, 2005. He faces up to life in prison with no chance of parole if convicted.

To convict on the charge of reckless manslaughter the jury must find McDonald caused a death recklessly by his own actions or by the actions of an accomplice with a shared criminal intent. They must find he acted recklessly with a knowledge that his actions created the possibility of the victim's death.

That contrasts with the charge of aggravated manslaughter, in which jurors would have to find McDonald acted recklessly with the knowledge his actions created the probability of the victim's death. To be convicted of murder, the jury would have to find McDonald purposely and knowingly killed the victim.

http://www.nj.com/hudsoncountynow/ind ... ury_receives_more_in.html

Jury pores over evidence as McDonald's mom sobs

Friday, March 07, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Time ticked by slowly for the mother of Edward McDonald as jurors finished its first round of deliberations in McDonald's murder trial.

"It was very nerve-racking and I still believe in my heart he didn't do it," said Jennie Orbin of her son as she left the courthouse after the jury called it a day at 4:20 p.m.

When the jurors first left the jury box and filed into the jury room at about 11:45 a.m. yesterday, Orbin quickly left the courtroom sobbing with one hand clasped tightly over her mouth.

McDonald is charged in the gruesome Jan. 11, 2005, murders of Hossam Armanious, 47, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters, Monica, 9, and Sylvia, 16 - in their Jersey City home. Charged as his alleged accomplice in what prosecutors call a botched robbery is Hamilton Sanchez. Sanchez is to be tried next.

Numerous members of the Garas family have attended the month-long trial and spent yesterday out of the courtroom in the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office's Victim Witness Unit.

Homicide investigators say McDonald is tied to the murders by his use of the family's ATM card after the murders. On March 3, 2005, McDonald gave a videotaped confession at FBI headquarters.

During the trial, defense attorneys argued that McDonald's confession was coerced and that not one piece of forensic evidence was found to tie either defendant to the crime.

The jury spent part of the day watching McDonald's confession, which was shown at least twice during the trial. At one point yesterday they asked for help from a technician, saying that the computer had frozen.

Jurors have about 130 exhibits to review and the testimony of about a dozen witnesses to consider. The verdict sheet they were given by Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan yesterday morning includes about two dozen counts ranging from murder to theft.

Deliberations resume at 9:30 a.m. today.

More than 2 killers?
Thursday, March 06, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Investigators studying every word of Edward McDonald's videotaped confession believe he dropped clues that more than the two people charged were involved in the murders of the Armanious family.

Edward McDonald and Hamilton Sanchez are charged with the murders, but in the confession McDonald says, referring to 9-year-old Monica, "She seen all of us, all of us."

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D'Andrea pointed that out to jurors in the trial, and he also noted that McDonald says "they" took Hossam Armanious into another room.

"Is it reasonable to infer there was someone else there besides him (McDonald) and Hamilton Sanchez and how would he (McDonald) know that unless he (McDonald) was there too?" D'Andrea asked the jury.

Ironically, McDonald's lawyers use the same quotes to make their point - that McDonald concocted the March 3, 2005, confession based on crime scene photographs shown to him by investigators in order to protect his family.

============================

GUILTY? 'KILLER' SAID IT HIMSELF
In closing, prosecutor rolls tape

Thursday, March 06, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

In wrapping up the prosecution's case against accused killer Edward McDonald, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D'Andrea let McDonald do most of the talking.

D'Andrea played a videotape from March 3, 2005, in which McDonald admits to investigators that he took part in the gruesome Jan. 11, 2005 murders of the Armanious family - Hossam, 47, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters, Monica, 9, and Sylvia, 16 - in their Jersey City home.

"He was there, by his own statement, and by the little, little bits of information that he lets slip out and he tells us," D'Andrea told jurors during his summation yesterday morning. "He said it because he did it, because he was there."

McDonald never took the stand in the three weeks of testimony, but prosecutors are banking on jurors hearing his words in their heads when they begin deliberations today. If convicted of the most serious charges, McDonald would likely be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On the taped confession, McDonald, the Armanious' upstairs tenant, implicated Hamilton Sanchez, who has also been charged. Sanchez will be tried after McDonald's trial.

The taped confession is the state's key piece of evidence, along with McDonald's use of the Armanious' ATM card after the murders.

Throughout the trial, defense attorney Paul Feinberg has argued that McDonald's confession was coerced, and just as important, that not one piece of forensic evidence was found to tie either defendant to the crime.

Police believe McDonald killed Monica and her father, although during his confession he claimed to have only killed Monica.

Although Feinberg has attempted to portray McDonald as a working man with a family, both McDonald and Sanchez have criminal records. In his confession, McDonald says that after the crime, his wife asked where he'd been. He says, "I just told her I did a robbery - some store."

"What did counsel call the defendant - a 'working man?'" D'Andrea asked jurors. "'Where you been, honey? I did a robbery, some store. Oh.'"

THE FINAL WORD IS: 'LIES'
Defense rips case against Armanious family 'killer'

Wednesday, March 05, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The defense team representing accused killer Edward McDonald presented a unique argument yesterday in its closing statements of his trial - the police lied, the FBI lied - and their own client lied.

"Frankly, every statement is a different story, every statement contradicts the other statements and not one of them has the ring of truth," said lead defense attorney Paul Feinberg of claims made by his client, Edward McDonald, 27.

McDonald and Hamilton Sanchez, 33, are charged with murdering Hossam Armanious, 47, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters Monica, 9, and Sylvia, 16, in their Oakland Avenue home on Jan. 11, 2005.

Feinberg argued that investigators pressured McDonald to give a videotaped confession on March 3, 2005, by picking up his wife, their three children and his mother, and threatening to arrest them. Feinberg accused investigators of showing McDonald numerous crime scene photos to give him information for inclusion in his confession.

Feinberg asked jurors that if their children, spouses and mothers "were in a fire, wouldn't you run in and save them?" Thus suggesting that McDonald lied about his guilt to spare his family.

The prosecution began its closing argument yesterday and will continue this morning. It's expected that the jury will begin deliberating this afternoon. If convicted, McDonald faces life in prison without parole. Sanchez will go on trial after McDonald.

Feinberg pointed to the mountain of evidence that the prosecution doesn't have - there's no blood, DNA, hair, fingerprints, palm prints or trace fibers to link McDonald to the crime scene.

He spent part of the closing argument poking holes even in the prosecution's robbery claims. A pile of jewelry was left at the scene, as were 41 credit cards, and every victim still had jewelry on when autopsied, Feinberg pointed out to the jury.

The prosecution says McDonald's use of the Armanious' ATM card after the murders tied him to the crime and his confession led to Sanchez's arrest.

But Feinberg stuck with the inconsistencies of the entire case. He pointed out that in one statement McDonald said he killed Hossam Armanious and Monica, but in another he claimed he killed Monica only. McDonald said Monica didn't fight back, but the medical examiner said she had eight defensive wounds on her arms.

Opening statements given in Armanious trial
by Journal staff
Tuesday February 05, 2008, 12:46 PM

The prosecution and defense made opening statements this morning in the trial of Edward McDonald, 28, who is standing trial for slaying the Armanious family in their Oakland Avenue home in Jersey City on Jan. 11, 2005.

McDonald and his alleged accomplice, Hamilton Sanchez, are accused of stabbing to death Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their daughters Sylvia,16 and Monica, 9; in a robbery gone bad.

The two men are being tried separately.

Today's court session is ending at 1 p.m. and Journal staff writer Michaelangelo Conte will have a full report to tomorrow's paper.

==========================================

Pics shock jury defense pounds 'inconsistencies'
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Several jurors sobbed when they were shown photos of the slaughtered bodies of Hossam Armanious, his wife Amal Garas, and their two young daughters, the opening salvo yesterday by the prosecution in the trial of one of two men charged with their grisly murders.

"Everybody had to die," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D'Andrea told jurors at the beginning of his opening statement, quoting Edward McDonald from his confession video - a recording that defense lawyers contend was coerced.

McDonald and Hamilton Sanchez are charged with killing Armanious, 47, his 37-year-old wife and their two children, Monica, 9, and Sylvia, 16, in their Oakland Avenue home on Jan. 11, 2005. Their bodies were found three days later.

McDonald's attorney, Paul Feinberg, fired back in his opening statement, telling jurors there is not one bit of DNA, blood, fingerprint or fiber evidence tying McDonald or Sanchez to the murders.

He said investigators worked on McDonald for hours before taping his confession and by then they had threatened to arrest his wife and his mother, and told him he would lose his children.

Feinberg reminded jurors of the tensions between Coptic Christians and the Muslim community after the slayings, and questioned if was a robbery turned murder, or a murder made to look like a robbery.

The defense attorney painted a picture of international intrigue, with tensions on the streets in Jersey City and in Egypt. He said the FBI was brought in immediately and both officials from Egypt and Saudi Arabia were kept abreast of events.

If it were a robbery, as police said, why didn't McDonald, who was the Armanious' upstairs tenant, just go back downstairs and get the jewelry that police say was left behind, Feinberg asked the jurors.

Feinberg questioned why McDonald - if he were indeed the mastermind prosecutors are making him out to be - would be so sloppy as to be easily tracked by using the Armanious' ATM card after the bodies were found.

"Nothing makes sense," said Feinberg, who said there are many inconsistencies between McDonald's statements and the actual crime scene.

He noted that McDonald lived upstairs with his wife and three children, calling him a good father who went to work every day.

After opening statements, Amal Garas' brother, Ayman Garas, testified briefly on going to police after being unable to contact the Armanious family. The police sergeant who discovered the bodies also testified briefly.

The trial continues this morning in Jersey City before Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan.

Words will haunt him
Judge says jury can hear confession

Friday, September 21, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JERSEY JOURNAL

A judge has ruled that a videotaped confession made by one of the two men charged in the murders of a Jersey City family of four who were stabbed to death in their home in 2005 will be admissible in his trial.

"This court is satisfied that on the record submitted, the defendant's statement could properly be received in evidence at trial and finds that no Miranda violation occurred," state Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan wrote in his ruling, issued Tuesday.

The confession was made by Edward McDonald, who is charged along with Hamilton Sanchez in the Jan. 11, 2005, murders of Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife Amal Garas, 37; and their daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9, in their Oakland Avenue home.

In one of the videotaped statements, made on March 3, 2005, McDonald admits killing Monica and says Sanchez killed the rest of the family during a botched robbery.

McDonald was the Armanious' upstairs tenant.

In his ruling, Callahan said there is nothing to suggest that McDonald didn't understand the consequences of signing a waiver of his right to remain silent and that interrogators repeatedly advised him of his rights.

McDonald's questioning on the day of the murders and again on March 3 at FBI headquarters in Newark were all ruled admissible.

At the Newark interrogation, he first admitted using the dead family's ATM card but said that Sanchez had gotten it during the robbery. Later that same day, McDonald underwent a polygraph test and, after being told he was lying, he made a second videotaped statement in which he admitted guilt, police say.

McDonald said he and Sanchez, wearing masks, went to the Armanious' door brandishing a gun and pushed their way in. They tied up and blindfolded Garas and the girls and when the father got home they tied him up as well. They took the father's ATM card and he gave them the PIN without resistance, McDonald said.

But, McDonald is heard saying on the tape, "the little girl pulled the thing off her face - she seen all of us."

After some inaudible words, McDonald is heard to say "everybody had to die." McDonald said he again blindfolded Monica with duct tape before killing her in the bathroom and said Sanchez killed the other family members, who were bound and blindfolded.

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D'Andrea said yesterday he was very pleased by Callahan's ruling.

McDonald's confession will not be admissible in Sanchez's trial. If prosecutors seek to use McDonald in the prosecution of Sanchez, he will have to take the witness stand. McDonald's trial may begin as early as November and Sanchez's is slated to follow it.

Neither McDonald's attorney, Ray Beam, nor Sanchez's attorney, Daniel Welsh, could be reached yesterday for comment.

Forced to confess?
Defense: Bar 'killer's' statements from trial

Friday, August 10, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Defense attorneys yesterday accused the prosecution of intimidating and pressuring a confession out of one of two men charged with murdering two girls and their parents in their Jersey City home in 2005.

Defense attorney Ray Beam noted that detectives showed morgue photos of the four members of the Armanious family during the March 3, 2005 interviews to get Edward McDonald to confess and implicate Hamilton Sanchez, Beam's client. The two are charged with killing Hossam Armanious, 47, and Amal Garas, 37, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9.

Under questioning yesterday, Detective Ken Kolich testified he told McDonald his mother and girlfriend had been taken into custody and that they might be charged, too. He also told McDonald that if his girlfriend was charged, he could lose his children.

Beam argued that the interrogators used the tactics to overwhelm McDonald and the resulting statement he gave should not be admitted as evidence.

Kolich said he was just being honest with McDonald about his loved ones and said he showed him the gruesome autopsy photos to convey the gravity of the situation.

When Beam suggested that Kolich's tactics were aimed at getting McDonald to confess, Kolich replied that he thought "That would be nice." Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D'Andrea said the video speaks for itself.

The prosecution and defense were in court for a third day this week to determine if taped interviews with the accused can be admitted into evidence.

On Tuesday, the prosecution played a videotaped statement made by McDonald on March 3, 2005 in which he says he killed Monica and Sanchez killed the rest of the Armanious family. McDonald said they had to die because Monica had taken off her blindfold and they feared she recognized him. McDonald was the Armanious' upstairs tenant.

Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan said yesterday he will have a ruling on the admissibility of the evidence in two weeks.

The parties will be back in court on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. to address other legal issues pertinent to McDonald's trial, which is expected to begin by November.

FBI: 'Killer' cracked after polygraph test

by Michaelangelo Conte
Tuesday August 07, 2007, 1:53 PM

An FBI agent testified this morning that one of two men charged with killing Jersey City's Armanious family in 2005 cracked after failing a polygraph test and admitting killing the father and his 9-year-old daughter.

"I advised Mr. (Edward) McDonald of the results of the test and I advised him there was more information on the deaths of the people in Jersey City," Special Agent William Holloman testified.

The Miranda hearing continues this afternoon. Prosecutors expect to play a video taped interview of McDonald which led to his immediate arrest and to the arrest of Sanchez soon after.

McDonald and Hamilton Sanchez are charged with killing the family, whose blood bodies were found on their Oakland Avenue apartment on January 14, 2005. Both men could be sentence to death if convicted.

"He said 'No.' and I said, this test is right, you are wrong. You know more,'" Holloman said on the witness stand in the Miranda hearing to determine what evidence will be admitted for use in McDonald's prosecution.

It was 5 p.m. on March 3 and McDonald had already been questioned since about 10 a.m. that day at FBI headquarters in Newark. The pair are charged with killing Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9. All four were stabbed to death in their Oakland Avenue home.

Holloman testified today that no video or tape recording was made of his interview with McDonald, which lasted hours. Under cross examination by McDonald's lawyer, Paul Feinberg, Holloman admitted that he wrote his report on the polygraph test four days later, based only on his memory. Feinberg pointed out that the report includes no quotes of McDonald's actual words.

WORDS OF A 'KILLER'
Court hears interview tapes
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

With each recorded interview, one of the men charged with murdering a Jersey City family in 2005 opened up more and more to police, providing information that prosecutors hope to use to convict him.

"It wasn't until we showed him a picture of the 9-year-old victim that he started to come around," Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Detective Sgt. Kenneth Kolich testified yesterday about Edward McDonald, who is charged along with Hamilton Sanchez in the Jan. 11, 2005 murders of Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9.

All four were stabbed to death in their Oakland Avenue home.

If convicted, McDonald and Sanchez could be sentenced to death.

The hearings yesterday and today are to decide which, if any, taped interviews can be entered into evidence. Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Michael D'Andrea said jury selection for McDonald's trial should begin by November. The state has chosen to try the two defendants separately and McDonald's trial will come first.

With McDonald's mother and members of the Armanious and Sanchez families looking on and listening, one audiotape and one videotape were played in court. Sanchez's family members wept as the hearing began. McDonald and Sanchez had their hands cuffed to a waist restraint and they meticulously avoided making eye contact.

Questioned by police on March 3, 2005, McDonald admitted using the murdered family's ATM card to get about $3,000.

"He said the ATM card was taken during a robbery he did not do, and the robber he identified was Hamilton Sanchez," Kolich testified.

A videotaped interrogation of McDonald - later that same day - will be played today. Statements he made in that interview led to his arrest and to Sanchez's arrest a short time later.

Police say the pair tied up and blindfolded the family, but the 9-year-old got her hands free, pulled down her blindfold and tried to escape. They allege McDonald panicked and chased her into a bathroom, where he stabbed her to death before both men turned on the rest of the family.

The first audiotaped interview played yesterday was made the morning of Jan. 14, the day the bodies were found in their first-floor apartment on Oakland Avenue, where McDonald was their second-floor tenant.

In that voluntary interview, McDonald was not a suspect and he answered general questions, including when he'd last seen each family member. He said he'd been the Armanious' tenant for two months.

They were "Looking for someone who wouldn't destroy the apartment," he said.

When asked if he'd heard anything downstairs over the previous few days, he said: "Nothing at all."

But by the time Kolich interviewed him on March 3, 2005 police had at least four pictures of him in his mother's 1990 Buick at ATM machines making withdrawals from the Armanious account. This time McDonald told them he and Sanchez had decided to rob the Armanious family and his job was to unlock the front door for Sanchez. He said they decided to rob them when "We were just talking about, we didn't have any money, we needed money."

He said he got home from work, unlocked the front door, and later went to bed, and that in the morning Sanchez gave him the ATM card and a PIN number and told him to get money. McDonald said he did not know the Armanious family was dead.

The hearing will resume today at 11 a.m. in Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan's courtroom in the Hudson County Administration Building.