Conviction Upheld For Man In Murder Of Young Mom

A state appeals court has upheld the conviction and sentencing of a Woodbridge man who murdered a 25-year-old mother as she walked home from a convenience store in the Avenel section of town.

Steven Fortin, 51, whose case has been the subject of numerous appeals, was convicted of murder, felony murder and aggravated sexual assault.

He was found guilty of killing Melissa Padilla as she walked home to the Gem Motel after buying food for her family at a Route 1 Quick Chek.

On Tuesday, a state appeals court affirmed his conviction and his sentence. He was ordered to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole, along with a consecutive 20-year term, with a ten-year period of parole ineligibility.

According to court papers:

On Aug. 11, 1994, Fortin and his girlfriend lived at the Douglas Motel on Route 1 north in Avenel. They got into an argument at a friend’s home that night, and their fight continued as they walked home.

The girlfriend said he began to kick and beat her in the parking lot of Bud’s Hut on Route 1, but she got away from him and ran into the restaurant for help. When police arrived, Fortin was already gone. The girlfriend declined medical attention and declined to sign a complaint against him.

Padilla had been living at the Gem Motel with her boyfriend and her young children. Around 11:15 p.m. that night, she walked to a nearby Quick Chek to buy food for the family.

Prosecutors argued that Fortin crossed paths with Padilla as she walked back to her motel room, and that’s when he attacked her.

When she failed to return home, her boyfriend and the sons of motel clerk began searching for her. They found her body about a block from the store, inside a concrete pipe. She’d been beaten and strangled.

In April 1995, police connected Fortin to the homicide after he was arrested in Maine for a similar attack on a female state trooper there. That woman survived the attack, but like the Padilla case, the attack in Maine included biting.

In November 1995, he pleaded guilty to charges, including kidnapping, robbery and attempted gross sexual assault, in connection with the Maine case.

At Fortin’s first trial in New Brunswick, he was convicted of Padilla’s murder and sentenced to death. But that conviction was overturned, and as part of that decision, the state’s highest court changed the way death penalty cases were handled in New Jersey. The court said aggravating factors in death penalty cases were first required to be presented to a grand jury and returned in a supplemental indictment.

Fortin was retried, and on Nov. 29, 2007, he was found guilty. But days later - on Dec. 7, 2007 - before the death penalty phase of his trial could begin, the death penalty was abolished in New Jersey.

After a penalty phase trial before a different jury, Fortin was sentenced to life without parole on the murder conviction.

In the latest appeal, Fortin’s attorney argued the state should not have been allowed to present testimony from his ex-girlfriend about the fight outside Bud’s Hut. But the state said that testimony was needed because it showed his motive - he was angry at the ex-girlfriend and took out his anger on Padilla when he attacked her.

Fortin’s attorney also argued that court improperly admitted the testimony of expert witnesses who testified about the bite marks found on the victim. The appellate court rejected those arguments.

The court also rejected arguments that claimed his sentence was unconstitutional.

Photo via New Jersey State Department of Corrections website