3-year-old among triple-homicide victims
By Ron Leir
HARRISON –
Police and a puzzled community are searching for answers to explain why a local 23-year-old man would kill his parents and 3-year-old niece in their Harrison home.
The accused killer, Carlos P. Campos, a 2006 Harrison High School graduate who was currently jobless, has been undergoing psychiatric evaluation since he turned himself in to police Tuesday, Aug. 16, shortly after the slayings.
Campos is being held on $3 million bail, pending his expected prosecution. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison without parole. New Jersey has no death penalty on the books.
Meanwhile, family members are mourning the loss of the victims: Ruth Pereira, 58; her husband, Carlos A. Campos-Trinidad, 57; and the couple’s grandchild, Gabriella Morales.
As recounted by law enforcement authorities, the younger Campos walked into Harrison Police headquarters at 12:18 p.m. on the 16th and had a conversation with police personnel that prompted seven officers, led by Capt. Michael Green, to go to Campos’ home at 216 Hamilton St.
On the first floor of the three-story, two-family residence, just across the street from the Hamilton Intermediate School, police discovered the bloodied lifeless bodies of Pereira, Campos-Trinidad and the baby.
To read the full story, see this week’s issue of The Observer.
