The state's highest court has refused to hear convicted killer Steven Fortin's appeal of his 1994 murder conviction. Watch video
NEW BRUNSWICK -- The N.J. Supreme Court has rejected convicted killer Steven Fortin's efforts to win a third trial for the 1994 murder of Melissa Padilla in Woodbridge.
The state's highest court denied a request to hear an appeal of a decision in October by a three-judge appellate court that rejected the Carteret handyman's arguments that several witnesses in his 2007 retrial, including his ex-girlfriend and several expert witnesses, should not have been permitted to testify.
The appellate judges also rejected Fortin's argument that his 2010 sentence of life in prison with no chance for parole was unconstitutional.
By not agreeing to hear his case, the Supreme Court has affirmed the appellate decision and ended Fortin's direct appeal efforts in a case that has had a lengthy legal history, including several trips before the justices including the reversal of Fortin's first conviction in 2001 at which time he was also sentenced to death.
The Supreme Court gave no reasons for denying Fortin's request for certification to appeal.
Padilla was walking home with groceries along Route 1 to a motel where she was staying with her four young children when she encountered Fortin the night of Aug. 11, 1994.
During his two trials, prosecutors said Fortin, angry over an argument with his girlfriend, crossed paths with Padilla and attacked her, dragging her into a concrete drain pipe alongside Routes 1&9 in the Avenel section of Woodbridge.
Police had no suspect until Fortin was arrested eight months later in Maine on an unrelated drunken-driving charge, prosecutors said. During the arrest, Fortin struggled with a female state trooper and bit her on the chin and breast, witnesses said. The bite marks from the Maine incident and dental impressions from Fortin matrched marks found on Padilla.
Fortin's first conviction and death sentence were overturned by the state Supreme Court, which said the trial judge had not thoroughly questioned jurors whether the evidence of Fortin's attack on the Maine trooper would unfairly prejudice them.
In December 2007, Fortin was convicted again of Padilla's murder, but the sentencing portion of his trial was not scheduled to begin until January 2008. In between the two, the legislature abolished the death penalty and replaced it with a term of life in prison without parole.
Superior Court Judge James Mulvihill, who presided over the second trial, ruled Fortin couldn't face the new penalty because it wasn't law when Fortin killed Padilla. He was upheld by the appeals court, but the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office took the case to the state Supreme Court which sided with the prosecutor's office in 2009.
Fortin's sentencing hearing was held in 2010 when a jury found no mitigating factors and he received life in prison without parole.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.