FREEHOLD - Prosecutors allege a Brookdale Community College honors student and her boyfriend were selling cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana up to and after the death of the marijuana supplier they are accused of robbing and murdering.
Raquel Garajau and her boyfriend, Joseph Villani, also plotted robberies on two prior occasions before the murder and robbery of Trupal Patel, Stephanie Dugan, an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, told a judge on Wednesday.
And, four days before Patel's murder, Garajau sent a text message to Villani saying,"Make sure you clean the bullets,"said Melanie Falco, also an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor.
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That is some of the evidence the assistant prosecutors want to introduce to a jury when Garajau, 20, of Tinton Falls, and Villani, 21, of Ocean Township, go on trial for the murder of Patel, 29, a convicted drug dealer from Brick who was found shot to death in Shark River Park in Wall on Feb. 22.
But defense attorneys for Garajau and Villani want to limit the evidence that prosecutors can put before the jury.
And Garajau's attorney, Robert A. Honecker, on Wednesday asked Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Scully to throw out the charges against his client, saying the grand jury that indicted her did so after being given false and prejudicial information from prosecutors.
Honecker, who has described his client as an innocentdean's list student at Brookdale Community College in Middletown, said among theevidence prosecutors presented to the grand jury was a photograph of Garajau holding a long rifle they claimed was the weapon used to murder Patel. However, prosecutors later conceded the weapon Garajau was pictured with wasn't the murder weapon, but another, similar rifle.
"I can't imagine the grand jury not considering that important evidence when weighing whether to indict Raquel Garajau,"Honecker said. "The prejudicial impact of that presentation –a grand jury could not fairly and impartially decide whether to indict Ms. Garajau. 'Here's a picture of Ms. Garajau holding the murder weapon.' Sounds like she's connected to this, but it was totally wrong."
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But since the pair was indicted, more evidence against them has been unearthed, including the text message Garajau sent to Villani four days before Patel's murder, telling her boyfriend to be sure to wash the bullets, Falco said.
The mixup about the gun in the photograph was an honest mistake, Falcosaid. There was other significant evidence presented to the grand jury sufficient to support an indictment of Garajau, Falco said. That included text messagesbetween Garajau and Villani before the murder about the rifle and bulletsand about robbing a drug dealer, and texts between them about a robbery on the night of the murder, Falco said.
Scully said he will rule Tuesday on whether to throw out the charges against Garajau. He said he also expects to rule Tuesday on the admissibility of statements Garajau and Villani gave to detectives investigating Patel's murder.
Villani during more than five hours of questioning eventually admitted he killed Patel and stole his watch, but he insisted Garajau had nothing to do with it.
Scully also said he will begin hearing testimony from witnesses concerningevidence of drug use and drug dealing by Garajau and Villani that prosecutors want to put before the jury and defense attorneys want excluded.
Dugan said she wants the jury to know about text messages between the two defendants attesting to their drug activities. Shes said she also wants them to hear fromwitnesses who can be expected to testify they bought marijuana from Garajau and Villanithat the defendants got from Patel. The drug transactions occurred before and after Patel's murder, she said.
Dugan said that evidence should be admitted at the trial because it is intrinsic to the state's case of robbery and murder.
Dugan said she also is looking tointroduce evidence that the couple concocted prior robbery plots together.
She said the couple's intent for the alleged murder and robberywas to steal Patel's marijuana.
Defense attorneys argued their clients are not charged with drug offenses, so that information has no business being introduced at the murder trial.
"They want to open up a Pandora's box and label these two young people as heartless, drug-dealing, robbing killers," said Villani's attorney, Edward C. Bertucio."What's the level of proof? How is it relevant?"
Dugan said thestate has narrowed the information it wants to introduce at trial to the couple's activities involving marijuana, despite information they also were dealing various illegal substances.
"Their drug dealing spans months and months,"Dugan said. "They were both engaged in selling cocaine, marijuana and Ecstasy."
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Dugan said she wants to present witnesses who will testify they purchasedmarijuana from the pair.
"There are witnesses hours after the robbery and murder of Patel whosay Villani and Garajau stopped by their house and gave them marijuana,"she said.
In addition, she said there are text messages within hours of the murder indicating that Villani was soliciting customers, saying that he's got "really good marijuana."
Dugan alleged that Garajau and Villani kept selling the marijuana they stole from Patel until they ran out of it.
Prosecutors allege Patel was killed on Feb. 6. He was reported missing in Asbury Park on Feb. 9, and it was almost two weeks before his body was found in the park.
Authorities allege Villani shot Patel in his Ocean Township home and that he and Garajau disposed of his remains in the park. They said Villani was wearing a watch stolen from Patel when detectives questioned him about he murder.
Honecker has professed Garajau's innocence, and Bertucio has said Villani killed Patel in self-defense.
Kathleen Hopkins: 732-643-4202; khopkins@app.com
