By DONNA WEAVER Staff Writer, 609-226-9198 | Posted: Friday, September 18, 2009 |
Dina Tush said when she finally got her daughter's bruised and battered body back, five days after she was murdered in April 2008, there was a 3-inch hole in her neck.
Jessica Tush's parents said what they found out from their daughter's autopsy report confirmed their suspicions that she was brutally killed in a way that should have been resulted in a murder charge.
Thomas Paolino, 20, of Staten Island, N.Y., was sentenced Friday morning to 23½ years in prison after pleading guilty in July to aggravated manslaughter in the death of ex-girlfriend Tush, also of Staten Island.
Now the Tushes say they want the public to know what was in the report and exactly what Paolino did to their daughter.
"The prosecutor told us and the autopsy report said she was stabbed in the neck up to 12 times," Dina Tush said. "He was stabbing her while he was choking her, they told me."
The 19-year-old's body was found by hikers in a shallow grave in April 2008 in Wharton State Forest.
The Tushes said they cannot forget a neighbor telling them that the morning of their daughter's slaying, Paolino was seen on their street with a shovel and trash bags in the back of his truck.
"That's premeditation. That was the same shovel he used to bury my daughter," Dina Tush said.
And now that they know the details of their daughter's slaying - details that have not been released to the public until now - the couple said her killer's sentence is just not enough.
In October, Paolino pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, desecrating human remains, two counts of theft and hindering apprehension. But in July, those charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office. Paolino pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter and third-degree hindering apprehension.
Under terms of the plea agreement, Paolino must serve 85 percent of the sentence before he is eligible for parole. The hindering apprehension charge will carry a five-year sentence that will be served concurrently.
Members of the Tush family told The Press of Atlantic City this week that the terms of the plea agreement were not discussed with them until the day Paolino entered his guilty plea in July.
"It's a shame they'll let a person of this caliber out in less than 20 years. He's an animal and shouldn't have a chance at freedom. I don't want to see him victimizing another family," Dina Tush said.
Victor Tush, Jessica Tush's father said he can't understand why the state would make a bargain with a killer.
"When they called us in to court, it seemed like it was a done deal. We wanted to go to trial, we wanted the 12 jurors to see what kind of person he is and decide," Victor Tush said.
The Tushes said they begged the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office to allow them to examine their autopsy report. Officials, however, declined until just recently.
"They kept telling us we didn't want to see her that way, and that we should remember her the way she was. But we needed to know everything. For so long, all I did was imagine," Dina Tush said.
After repeated inquiries from The Press, authorities from the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on the details of the autopsy report.
"Jessica had three fractured ribs, scrapes on her back, they said most likely from being dragged, a slice across her neck, a broken hyoid from him choking her and broken blood vessels around her eyes," Dina Tush said.
Victor Tush said his daughter's jewelry was missing. New Jersey State Police detectives showed the couple two photos to identify - one of their daughter's sneakers and another of her necklace, a silver heart that she was wearing the morning she left her home.
"I know she was wearing that necklace when she left, and they (police) had a picture of that same necklace hanging from around (Paolino)'s rearview mirror," Dina Tush said.
Victor Tush said the autopsy report also revelead that Paolino's semen was found inside Tush. Authorities told the family that they could not prove she was raped and that there was no vaginal tearing, he said.
"They said because she was clothed, they don't think she was raped, and also because they were a couple," he said.
Dina Tush said her daughter would not have had sex with Paolino willingly. Just days before her slaying, Tush was assaulted by Paolino and suffered two black eyes.
Tush's aunt, Alda Villafana, also of Staten Island, said after Paolino buried her niece he made a makeshift cross out of sticks and left it at the crime scene.
"I'm confident he would have been convicted of first-degree murder knowing the details of the crime. He committed it in a devious and perverse way," Villafana said.
Paolino could wind up with more time behind bars for allegedly punching a prison guard in the face, according to a report in the Staten Island Advance.
Authorities say Paolino fought with a corrections officer at the Burlington County Jail earlier this month and now faces a felony charge of aggravated assault against a corrections officer, which carries a maximum of five years on a conviction.
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