Man Who Admitted Shooting, Dismembering, and Cooking His Girlfriend Wins Appeal

A New Jersey man who testified that he had in fact shot, dismembered, and boiled his girlfriend's head - but in self-defense - won an appeal of his murder conviction Monday.

George Jenewicz testified at his 2002 trial that he shot Eunice Gillens in self-defense following a fight and after panicking, dismembered her. He then put her head in a pot to boil away her features.

Jenewicz asserted that the trial judge improperly barred testimony from two proposed defense witnesses, including Gillens' mother, and that the prosecution improperly cross-examined a defense expert.

Gillens' mother was to testify that her daughter had said she chased Jenewicz with a shotgun, and one occasion had kicked him down a staircase because he had tied her up. Of course, tying her up - that might deserve kicking him down the stairs.

The New Jersey Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, ruled that those errors "prejudiced the fairness of defendant's trial and, therefore, casts doubt on the propriety of the jury verdict that was the product of that trial."

Of course, the Supreme Court also said "that the state presented powerful evidence to undermine defendant's self defense claim," but who cares, let's spend some more of the state's money on a new trial.