Judge dumps lawyer's claim body shouldn't be evidence in Atlantic Highlands murder trial

FREEHOLD - A defense attorney last month made an unusual argument, urging a judge to suppress the most crucial evidence in a murder case — the victim's body — saying Atlantic Highlands police discovered it during an illegal and warrantless search of a car.

A judge on Wednesday rejected the argument and said the body of Sonia Gonzales will be admissible at Jordan Vilcatoma-Correjo's trial for the 26-year-old Edison woman's murder.

Superior Court Judge Henry P. Butehorn ruled that while police did not have a warrant to search Vilcatoma-Correjo's car on June 10, 2022, the search was lawful because it fell under one of the exceptions to the warrant requirement — that the officers believed they were looking for a person in need of immediate emergency aid.

He said prosecutors met their burden to show there was a reasonable and objective basis for the officers to believe there was an emergency that required their immediate assistance and that the scope of their search was limited to the reason that prompted the search in the first place.

The search yielded the body of Gonzales, the ex-girlfriend of Vilcatoma-Correjo, 28, of Edison.

Police found the corpse in a plastic bag underneath piles of clothing and other bags in the back seat of the defendant's silver Honda Accord. It was bloodied and missing an eye, which police later found in the car.

In issuing his ruling, the judge said he took into consideration the totality of the circumstances during what he described as "a fast-breaking and chaotic situation.''

He said that included the testimony last month of the three officers involved in the search, which he deemed credible, as well as video from the body-worn cameras of two of them. The third officer's camera wasn't working, he noted.

Despite a language barrier with a Spanish-speaking 911 caller, the officers believed the caller was reporting a medical emergency, the judge noted.

When they reported to the location, they were met by four Spanish-speaking people in a car who were "in a state of panic and distress," the judge said.

They were crying and frantic, Butehorn said.

Despite the language barrier, "It was clear they were trying to get help," he said.

However, the officers testified the person they were seeking medical help for wasn't there.

A woman in the car showed one of the officers a location-services tracking application on her phone indicating the person they were looking for was in the area of East Avenue.

Patrolman Joseph LaBella testified he followed them to the location and saw a Honda Accord swerve and run a stop sign, so he pulled it over, thinking the driver was suffering from a medical episode.

But even after it was determined that the driver, Vilcatoma-Correjo, was not in need of medical assistance, the family in the other car continued with their panicked and frantic behavior, the judge noted.

Butehorn said the four people were "crying, yelling, grabbing at their faces" and pointing to the back seat of the defendant's car, in "a clear indication of concern directed at the back seat of the Accord."

At one point, LaBella thought he heard one of the people say, "baby," and peered inside to see if there was an infant car seat there, but didn't see one, the judge noted.

When LaBella said he heard the Spanish word for dog, he said he asked about that, to which one of the family members replied, "No, wife," the judge said.

The four people continued to panic and point to the vehicle, the judge said. Some of them started jumping up and down, he said.

"The video speaks for itself," Butehorn said. "There was a reasonable belief there could be a person, baby or child in the vehicle."

The officers couldn't dispel that belief by simply looking into the vehicle because it was cluttered with bags, clothing and other items, the judge said.

"They were stacked high enough that they could be covering a person or a baby," Butehorn said.

One of the officers reached into the back seat and removed a duffel bag, "but the commotion continued as family members continued to point to the rear seat," the judge said.

At that point, Lt. Michael Zedonyi testified he touched one of the plastic bags in the back seat and felt what he believed to be a body inside it.

That there was no response from the person inside indicated even more the need for emergency medical assistance, the judge said.

But, when paramedics arrived on scene, they opened the plastic bag and determined the person inside was already deceased, he said.

With that, the emergency responders "stopped all further intrusion into the vehicle," roped it off as a crime scene and sought a warrant to search the car further, the judge said.

Defense attorney Carlos Diaz-Cobo argued at the hearing on June 18 that because the language barrier prevented the police officers from understanding what the frantic family was trying to tell them, they should have waited for a Spanish-speaking officer to arrive on scene.

Butehorn noted, however, that the Atlantic Highlands Police Department's Spanish-speaking officer was not on duty at that time, and the department had to reach out to police in neighboring Middletown to see if they could send a Spanish-speaking officer.

"There could not be any knowledge of when or even if such an officer would be available," Butehorn said. "For the Atlantic Highlands officers to stop and wait for what would be an unknown period of time until a Spanish-speaking officer arrived would be something contrary to what the situation indicated and what was required — immediate action to find and address that medical emergency.

"The overall circumstances would lead any reasonable person to believe there was some type of emergency involving another person and that emergency was in the rear seat of the defendant's vehicle," the judge said.

Vilcatoma-Carrejo has been held without bail at the Monmouth County Jail since his arrest that day.

Additional pre-trial hearings in the case are expected later this month.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com .

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Judge dumps lawyer's claim body shouldn't be evidence in Atlantic Highlands murder trial