Trial of New Jersey Executive Accused of Murder
The trial of a New Jersey tech executive, accused of murdering his brother and his family, took an intense turn, reminiscent of a scene from “The Sopranos.” A central witness revealed that he immediately suspected something was wrong upon hearing gunfire.
Dennis Corpora, an optician and neighbor of the alleged victim, Keith Caneiro, recounted waking up to five loud bangs on November 20, 2018. “I was listening closely, hoping to catch any screams,” he said, his Jersey accent clear. “Then, I tried to shut my eyes for a moment, but I knew something had happened.”
He noted that he recorded the unsettling incident on his phone but struggled to fall back asleep. “When I heard the shots, I thought, somebody just got hit,” he testified at Monmouth County Superior Court in Freehold. “Those were the exact words in my head.”
Corpora called 911 to report the gunfire, and dramatic recordings were played during the trial. Surprisingly, his first question to the dispatcher was whether it was permissible to hunt at night, to which she responded no.
When asked how many shots he heard, he counted them out loud, “Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun,” before declaring it was five. “I just don’t want anyone to get hurt again,” he expressed before ending the call.
Corpora later reached out to emergency services again, expressing concern over the disturbance. “I called back because I had this feeling that something was off,” he mentioned. However, on his second call, the dispatcher confusingly stated, “There’s no basis. They couldn’t find anything.”
During his testimony, Corpora mentioned that while he had heard gunshots in Colts Neck before—perhaps from hunters—he had never experienced anything quite like this incident. He confirmed that he only heard the shots and couldn’t see anything happening.
Paul Caneiro faces murder charges for allegedly fatally shooting his brother Keith, who was 50, and stabbing Keith’s wife Jennifer, 45, along with their children Jesse, 11, and Sophia, 8. Notably, the charges came soon after a confrontation regarding stolen funds from a trust.
Caneiro has entered a plea of not guilty.
