Thursday, July 22, 2010

Woodbridge, NJ: Man again loses conviction appeal in fatal Woodbridge stabbing of girlfriend

BY KEN SERRANO • STAFF WRITER • JULY 22, 2010

MIDDLESEX COUNTY — A man who stabbed his girlfriend to death in the parking lot of a Woodbridge hotel in 1993 for insurance money lost his latest bid to have his conviction overturned.



John Chew, who was sentenced to death only to have that sentence overturned by the state Supreme Court, was re-sentenced to 30 years to life in prison in 2004.

A two-judge state appeals court panel affirmed Judge Frederick DeVesa's 2008 rejection of Chew's post-conviction relief motion.

Chew killed 29-year-old Teresa Bowman as she sat in the front seat of his 1977 Chevrolet Corvette in the Hilton at Woodbridge parking lot on Jan. 12, 1993.

Chew killed her so he could collect on her $250,000 life insurance policy, prosecutors said.

In June 1995, now-retired Judge Barnett Hoffman sentenced Chew to death by lethal injection.

The state Supreme Court in 2004 upheld Chew's conviction but overturned the death sentence. The state highest court ruled that Chew's attorneys should have called a psychologist to the witness stand to try to show that Chew suffered from extreme emotional or mental disturbance.

Chew, now 59, will be first eligible for parole when he is about 75.

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