Judge asked to toss evidence against defendant in 2012 killing

Miles Feinstein, attorney for Michael Sampson, argued that police should have obtained a warrant.

HACKENSACK -- The attorney for a Garfield man accused of killing 33-year-old Hector Zabala asked a judge Wednesday to toss evidence obtained against his client without a warrant.

Miles Feinstein, the attorney for Michael Sampson, 42, said police should have obtained warrants to obtain the cell phone records of Sampson's wife and tow her car to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office headquarters in Paramus.

Prosecutor's Office Capt. Robert Anzilotti, a lieutenant in charge of major crimes at the time of the July, 8, 2012 homicide, said investigators sought the cell phone data without first obtaining a warrant because Sampson was considered armed and dangerous. They tracked the phone to Lodi, where local police stopped his wife Jacquelin Pierro in a black Nissan Quest minivan that matched one scene leaving the scene of a killing in Cliffside Park hours earlier.

A friend in the car with Pierro told police Sampson was in her Garfield apartment, where he was later arrested.

Acting Senior Assistant Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer said what investigators did to get the records was legal.

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"The police, due to the exigent circumstances of the investigation, were fully justified in obtaining this information without first applying for a warrant," Grootenboer said.

Feinstein and Grootenboer began arguing motions ahead of the trial of Sampson, on charges of murder, weapon possession and drug possession. He also faces a child endangerment charge, as Sampson was allegedly with an infant when he was arrested.

Feinstein also asked Judge Margaret Foti to dismiss the case entirely, on the grounds that Sampson had not received a "fair and speedy trial." Sampson has been in jail on $3 million bail for nearly four years while awaiting trial.

"I believe wholeheartedly that Mr. Sampson's constitutional right has been violated," Feinstein said.

Grootenboer argued that the prosecutor's office didn't deliberately delay Sampson's trial and that other murder cases have taken longer to bring to trial.

Feinstein made more than a dozen motions, which Foti plans to rule on after the Easter holiday.