Convicted murderer will serve life without parole after appeal rejected

By KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer

WOODBRIDGE — Steven R. Fortin will continue to serve his life without parole sentence for the 1994 brutal murder of Melissa Padilla, who left behind four young children.

A three-judge panel of the Appellate Division of state Superior Court rejected an appeal of the defendant’s retrial in 2010 in a decision released on Oct. 20.

Fortin, now 50, who was represented by Jacqueline E. Turner, assistant deputy public defender, claimed he did not receive a fair trial, asserting that the judge made errors in his retrial by admitting testimony of his ex-girlfriend and admitting and excluding certain expert opinions.

On Aug. 11, 1994, Padilla was found brutally beaten and half naked in a concrete pipe along Route 1 after purchasing items from Quick Chek in the Avenel section of Woodbridge.

Both Fortin and Padilla were residing at motels in Avenel at the time.

The state’s theory was that the defendant’s anger after an argument with his then-girlfriend motivated him to brutally attack and murder Padilla, who he encountered later that night as they both crossed paths along Route 1.

Earlier in the night, police responded to an incident in a parking lot along Route 1 where police observed Fortin’s girlfriend, who told police that the defendant assaulted her and hit her in the face.

The appellate division stated in its decision that “the evidence of defendant’s assault of his girlfriend was relevant to prove defendant’s motive and intent to not only kill Padilla, but to make her suffer by viciously beating and biting her, and sexually assaulting her … before he strangled her to death.”

The defendant also claimed that the judge refused to take action on several occasions where jurors were sleeping or claiming that the defendant was making inappropriate eye contact with them.

The court questioned the two jurors at whom the defendant allegedly smiled and winked. The appellate division found the court’s inquiry was adequate.

As for the sleeping jurors, the appellate division stated while the court did not comply with the dictates regarding sleeping jurors, none of the prosecution witnesses that the jurors allegedly slept through — two police officers — was critical to the defense.

“The defendant suffered no prejudice,” the decision stated.

The murder case of Padilla went cold until April 1995 when the Maine State Police contacted the Woodbridge Police Department about the defendant, who had been arrested for sexually assaulting a Maine state trooper.

Fortin pled guilty to all the charges in Maine and was sentenced to an aggregate 20-year-term in prison.

Through an investigation, it was concluded that bite marks found on the Maine State trooper and Padilla matched Fortin’s dental records.

In 2007, Fortin went on trial in New Jersey. He was found guilty of the purposeful and knowing murder of Padilla, felony murder and two counts of aggravated sexual assault. The law in effect at the time provided for a sentence of either death or a term of 30 years to life with a 30-year parole disqualifier.

Prior to the penalty-phase trial, the death penalty was abolished in New Jersey.

An appeals court reversed Fortin’s conviction in the first trial. In a retrial in 2010, Fortin was convicted of first-degree purposeful and knowing murder, first-degree felony murder while in the course of committing the crime of aggravated sexual assault, and first-degree aggravated sexual assault.

He was sentenced to life without parole on the murder conviction and to a consecutive 20-year term of imprisonment with 10 years of parole ineligibility on the aggravated sexual assault conviction.