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For the first time, jurors are hearing from neighbors of Paul Caneiro and what they saw the morning of Nov. 20, 2018. But before they took the stand, the county's financial crimes detective answered one last question.
“Did all of those transfers…all of those transfers from 2017 and 18 did they go anywhere other than the defendant's personal accounts? No. I have nothing further,” said Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office Detective Debbie Bassinder.
Bassinder exited the stand after close to eight hours of testimony. Prosecutors moved on from the alleged financial crimes of this case to the arson charges.
Heather Gapp testified she lived across the street from Paul's Tilton Drive home and at 4:30 a.m., noises outside woke her up.
“Two men running across the street with flashlights. They were in dark colored clothes and baseball hats. One ran to the front door and started banging on the door and the other went into the neighbor's driveway kneeled down and pointing flashlight at Paul's backyard,” she testified.
Flames were seen coming from the south corner of the home, and over the next 30 minutes, officers and firefighters arrived including Ocean Township Police Officer David Marino, who testified seeing another potential fire origin by the driveway.
“After we walked past the vehicles there was a red gas can on its side and also burn marks on the door trim of the garage door area and burn marks on a portion of the Macan and smoke damage as well on it,” said Marino.
Body cam video played in court shows the officer retrieving a DVR security video system from on top of Paul's garage fridge.
It was that piece of evidence Paul's defense team argued should not have been admissible because they claimed it was gathered during the arson investigation illegally, but the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled it would be allowed as evidence.
Testimony resumes Thursday morning.