Lawyers: Mount Olive woman killed beau in self-defense
A former Wharton school teacher who is charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, a retired New York City police officer, at her Mount Olive home 14 months ago, will pursue a self-defense strategy, her attorneys said Tuesday.
State Superior Court Judge Stuart Minkowitz, sitting in Morristown, conducted a status conference on the murder charge against Virginia Vertetis, 52, and was told by Assistant Morris County Prosecutor Matthew Troiano that the statestill is awaiting results of DNA tests on fingernail clippings of victim Patrick Gilhuley, 51.
Defense lawyer Edward J. Bilinkas, who is handling the case with his son Edward M. Bilinkas, said he believes the DNA tests will reveal genetic material to show that Gilhuley had attacked Vertetis before she used Gilhuley’s gun to shoot him.
The defense lawyers said that Vertetis concedes she shot Gilhuley on March 3, 2014, with a gun he had left at her Mount Olive home. But they said the shooting was self-defense and plan to file a motion —which Troiano said he would oppose — for permission to use at trial alleged past episodes of bad conduct by Gilhuley against Vertetis.
Troiano told the judge that some plea negotiations have occurred but nothing “fruitful.”
“The reality is I think it’s going to be a trial,” Troiano said.
After the hearing, the elder Bilinkas said he hopes to elicit testimony at a possible trial about “specific instances as to her (Vertetis’s) state of mind at the time of the shooting.”
“There were a number of things that put her in fear for her life,” Bilinkas said.
The judge scheduled the next conference for July 7.
Vertetis is accused of shooting Gilhuley to death while he was trying to break up with her at her home. The victim was a retired New York City police officer who lived on Staten Island.
Court documents state that he went to Vertetis’ home on Apollo Way on March 3, 2014, to end their relationship. His daughter called police at 10 p.m. that night to say she was speaking by cellphone to her father while he was at the house, and she heard him scream that Vertetis was shooting at him. Vertetis, a divorced mother of a teenage son and daughter, was a fourth-grade math teacher at the Marie V. Duffy Elementary School in Wharton. She was on a leave of absence from the district at the time of the shooting.
The daughter told police she heard gunshots in the background. When police arrived, they saw through windows in the house a woman walking around with a phone and a man lying on the floor by the front door.
Upon entering the house, they found the bloodied body of the victim and Vertetis crying, according to an arrest affidavit.
While being handcuffed, Vertetis reportedly said to police: “Why are you doing this? Someone was breaking in. I was lying in bed. I live here alone.”
Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com