APPELLATE COURT AFFIRMS DOUBLE MURDER CONVICTION OF OCEAN TOWNSHIP MAN

A state Appellate Court panel has affirmed the competency and conviction of an Ocean Township man who claimed he was Jesus Christ and on a mission from God when he murdered and dismembered his 88-year-old grandmother and 31-year-old former girlfriend on June 8, 2004, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced.

Rosario Miraglia, Jr., 40, was found guilty by a jury in September 2008 of two counts of first degree murder and weapons offenses following a nearly month-long trial handled by now Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Richard E. Incremona. Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Paul Chaiet, now retired, sentenced Miraglia to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

Miraglia appealed his convictions arguing the trial judge erred in finding him competent to stand trial despite three competency hearings; denying a request for a bench trial, which Miraglia opposed in the trial court; and erred in the instructions to the jury about his insanity defense.

Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Mary R. Juliano, Director of the Appellate Unit, wrote the state’s brief and argued the appeal before the three-judge Appellate panel, Judges Clarkson S. Fisher, Jr., Carmen H. Alvarez, and Jerome M. St. John, who found no errors and affirmed the conviction.