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Herald file photo - Kyle Chirip, right, is seated next to his attorney, George Daggett in state Superior Court on May 14 in Newton.
SUPERIOR COURT -- "Will you guys still love me if I killed someone?"
It is the state's burden to prove at trial that 22-year-old Kyle Chirip attempted to murder a Stillwater man, and that question, allegedly asked by Chirip to his mother by phone just minutes after the incident, is one of many pieces of evidence that will be presented, according to Assistant Prosecutor Sahil Kabse.
Chirip, of Fredon, his attorney, George Daggett, and Kabse appeared in court Tuesday in front of Judge William J. McGovern III for a final hearing in the case before it heads to trial on Sept. 10.
Chirip, who is facing multiple charges, including the first-degree crimes of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, is accused of stabbing the victim six times in the early morning hours of Aug. 6, 2017, before fleeing the scene in the man's car.
Kabse told the court that when state troopers arrived at Chirip's mother's home in Fredon in search of him, troopers overheard a phone conversation, conducted on speakerphone, between Chirip and his mother where Chirip allegedly made the statement.
"His mother tried to convince him to go to his father's house (in Frelinghuysen)," Kabse said.
His father's house is where Chirip was eventually apprehended by authorities that same evening.
At Tuesday's hearing, Kabse highlighted the state's case, detailing the circumstances surrounding the crime, in anticipation for trial.
Present during the hearing were Chirip's parents, who sat in the front row but rarely looked up.
Kabse said the victim, who is anticipated to take the stand during trial, knows Chirip and identified him as the person who stabbed him. Exchange Tie Dye Shirt
The victim, who was permitted to live in his car behind a home in Stillwater, told authorities that he and Chirip engaged in a brief conversation before Chirip stabbed him once in the chest area, Kabse said.
"The victim then got out of his car and ran for his life and Chirip gave chase with his knife through the neighbor's backyard and proceeded to stab (the victim) multiple times," Kabse said.
Neighbors observed a male in his early 20s wearing a tie-dye T-shirt in the area, "who appeared to be looking for something," Kabse said, and when Chirip was apprehended, troopers also found the victim's car with a backpack in it containing a tie-dye T-shirt and a knife covered in blood, which DNA testing later confirmed to be the victim's.
The motivation behind the stabbing will include testimony by Jason Rios, a current inmate at the Sussex County Jail, who alleges Chirip told him while awaiting trial in the jail that stabbing the victim was to help him gain initiation into a gang.
In addition, Tyler Godfrey, 20, of Newton, an acquaintance of Chirip's, will also testify. Godfrey shook up the case in May when he told police during an interview that he conspired with Chirip to kill the victim. He later took a 10-year plea deal in exchange for a guilty plea to a first-degree conspiracy to commit murder charge, leading McGovern to dismiss potential jurors in Chirip's anticipated May 15 trial start.
Kabse said Godfrey has told authorities Chirip was in contact with a member of the Bloods street gang and wanted to kill the victim in an effort to gain entry into the gang.
Special Agent Edwin Torres, of the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, is expected to speak about the gang member that Chirip was in touch with, present communications found between Chirip and the member, and discuss ways in which members get initiated into the Bloods gang.
Chirip is also facing charges of first-degree robbery, third-degree possession of a weapon and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon. If convicted on all charges, he faces 66.5 years in prison.
While Daggett has kept mum regarding Chirip's defense, he did indicate there is a "vital piece of evidence" in notes written by Rios while at the jail.
"(Rios) mentions a person who got in a fight with Kyle Chirip while in jail," Daggett said. "That fight is relevant because of the way Rios refers to that person." Daggett only referred to the person with initials.
Additional motions will be heard before the start of trial.
Lori Comstock can also be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.
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