Hey there, everybody. Welcome to Amy and TJ Presents. This edition, we are talking about the first week in a long awaited trial out of New Jersey, the Colts Neck murders trial. These murders happened on November twentieth, twenty eighteen, so we are now nearly eight years later. Finally Paul Canaro is facing quadruple murder charges for the deaths of his brother, his sister in law, his niece, and his nephew. And
so much attention has been on this case. There's arson involved, there's money is the motive, but this is just a tragic scene where, if it's true what prosecutors say happened, it's one of the most disturbing, jaw dropping murder cases we've ever seen.
The kids are eight and eleven, folks. Yes, he's accused of killing his niece and nephew eight and eleven. The mom and dad were shot, the eight and eleven you were stabbed, including the niece. The eight year old stabbed some seventeen times in her forty five pound body, as the prosecutor put it. So when we say this is a heinous crime, this is beyond a lot of headlines
true crime stories, and shocking crimes that we've seen. This is a family story about a massacre and a man we are watching every day sitting in argyle sweaters and v nex and ties as a guy accused of being capable of stabbing his own niece seventeen times. That's what we're dealing with. So you say jaw dropping and shocking, this is beyond comprehension.
You're wondering because cameras are in the courtroom. So that adds, of course to the intrigue of this case, because you're actually watching this man who, if true what prosecutors say he did, you're looking at a monster who was posing as a husband and a loving father. Now his family has been in the courtroom supporting him, his wife, his daughter, and that is of note. But he has been behind
bars for all these years waiting for his trial. There were a lot of delays because of what evidence should or should not be allowed. They also blamed COVID for the delay. But this has been seven plus years where he has waited for his time in court, and Paul Canaro from the beginning has maintained his innocence and we heard in opening statements this week what the defense is going to be And this also was a curveball for a lot of folks who have been following this case.
We heard prosecutors outline their evidence, which is significant, and then you have Paul Canaro's defense team saying that because because the evidence is so overwhelming, it's so conveniently overwhelming, it can't be believed and they pointed to another suspect.
Yeah, we see this in a lot of trials. Are a lot of high profile ones as of late, but over the years, I mean, you can just be a casual watcher of news and crime and true crime, and you know that jurors want to hear a motive for a crime, and they also if you're saying you're not guilty, they'd like to hear an alternative for what happened. And this case, they are giving them one first of all, saying it wasn't me, but be going beyond that, two,
we believe it with somebody else. But even going beyond that, three, we have the other suspect for you and name them, and it happens to be the other brothers. So three brothers involved here, one on trial for killing the other and the one that's on trials is accusing the other of doing the actual killing. This is a mess.
It is a mess. And when you hear about what the motive is, that it's all about money. This seemingly tight knit family, I mean, they have shown the photos of the Canaros, Paul and Keith specifically, who were in business together. Their families lived ten miles apart, they were constantly in one another's homes, they vacationed together. They say
this was basically one extended family. So to see the allegations that are in court, it's hard to get your head around how a family so seemingly loving and in business together and so a part of one another's lives could be ripped apart in such a dramatic, horrific, bloody fashion.
So we heard we actually heard from Keith Canaro this week in court, which was pretty remarkable, and the prosecution promised this in their opening statements, that we would hear two phone calls perhaps the last time anyone heard or saw Keith Canaro. It was captured on his home surveillance equipment just hours before he was murdered, and prosecutors played the recordings of those calls that Keith made to his brother Paul and Keith was upset.
Yeah, he sounded like he was the one who wanted to kill his brother. I mean not to be crass about that, but he was. If this was a case and he was the one on the other brother and accused of killing his brother, this would be a pick piece of that evidence. He was pissed. He was pissed about money. He was pissed that he always had to track him down for money. This has been an ongoing thing that they're trying to build up. This is the
prosecution case, and this was part of it. This was a financial motive that this guy, Paul can Arrow had a financial house of cards. He was about to lose his way of life, yet no other way to make up for the money he was about. So it had It had at times been boring testimony because they have to go through financial records and times and you have not to be the again. But we are TV people and we're used to seeing people sometimes get on stand
and their characters. You can still remember Cato Kalin's testimony. You can how he was his personality. Frankly, we have a lot of pencil pushers and you have people who are going through files and whatnot. They warned us, Hey, this is going to get a little tedious at times, and it's going to be drawn out, but they have to go through this, and the point of it is to establish to us, meaning the jury, that this guy
had a reason to kill. And at this point, I don't know how firm it's coming across right now because the amount of money we're talking about, what a life insurance policy and then another smaller amount seventy eight relatively smaller amount for them, are the two issues. Is it enough for him to want to.
Kill his whole family, right and.
Then burn down two mansions to try to cover it up.
That's man, that's pretty dramatic and a yes, desperation. So what they are setting up is that Paul Canaro stole about eighty thousand, seventy eight thousand, I think specifically from borrowed against a life insurance policy, and there was some other times where it looked like he absolutely took money for himself. He paid some of it back, but at the end of the day, we're talking about seventy eight
thousand dollars. And then there was a larger issue that yes, if his brother Keith died, and then Keith's wife died and then Keith's children died, then there would be a three million dollar life insurance policy that would be split between the two remaining brothers, which would be Paul and Corey.
So those are the two financial issues right now. But this phone call that was played out there were two phone calls in court, was pretty dramatic because yes, it started about twelve hours before Keith Canaro would be murdered. But he wants to know why his life insurance policy hasn't been paid, and he wants to know from Paul Canaro. He said, Paul, I need to know where the money went. And this is about that missing seventy eight thousand dollars.
So at three point fifty pm, the day before Keith Canaro was found murdered, he said, if you can send the password, I'll do the research myself. Then he calls back three hours later, I need you to wake up, Paul and do it. You don't have your TD login, Give me the efing login. Give me the login, Paul, wake the f up. And so he keeps calling Paul by his name, he keeps dropping the F bomb profanity,
la I mean, he is upset. So then he's like and you can't hear Paul, by the way, on the other side, because this is just the surveillance camera where you've got the video and the audio from Keith sums you can't hear what Paul is saying on the other side. But then he says, Paul, I'm worried. I need to know where it went. And he ended the call by saying, I'm going to give you an hour or two. I want an answer by eight pm. And that is the last you hear from Keith. And then prosecutors say Paul
never got back to him at eight pm. Instead, he started planning the murder of his brother.
I mean, tell little coincidence that the timing of it he ends up dead on the night of that you have a deadline night. That's that's pretty strong circumstantial evidence. And that was a powerful moment in the court. Look, we haven't had a as we say, keep calling him a Perry Mason moment, but that was one. I think that that worked for the prosecution. They made an impression. They will remember that going into the germom.
Yes, and to hear to hear someone's voice and to hear his demeanor and who he was directing his anger at and hearing him give his brother an ultimatum and then to know he ended up dead hours later, that is certainly powerful. I mentioned demeanor when we come back. That has been a huge part of this week with the judge and the attorneys whether or not that is something that can be allowed into evidence, and the defense
team definitely got a tongue lashing from the judge. But we're also waiting to hear as we continue to watch the prosecutors lay the groundwork for motive, we're waiting to hear the defense's third brother theory. Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ presents where we are going over the first week in a long way weighted trial of Paul Canaro.
He is accused of a quadruple homicide, murdering his own brother, his sister in law, and then brutally murdering and stabbing his eight year old niece his eleven year old nephew. We heard from prosecutors who described how those children died and how they didn't just die from their stab wounds. They described the fire that Paul then set, a slow smoldering fire where they said those children had smoke inhalation in their lungs, so they said they bled out while
they were choking in smoke. That was that was hard to take in. I can't imagine as a member of the jury, You're hearing this from the prosecution and you're looking across the room at this man who seems very emotional wiping away tears in an argyle sweater vest. That's got to be a moment.
Yeah, and I look, I don't know what to make of And to be honest with you, I was sitting here and thinking about this. I was getting defense lawyers mixed up. I'm be honest with you. We have been seeing so many high profile trials here in the past week or so, even in the latter months of last year. I'm sitting here, I'm actually thinking about this case and remembering, oh no, wait, that's that was the other part. That was Brendan Banfield's attorney. Oh no, that happened in the
Brian Walsh case. I'm actually getting scenarios and people mixed up and who was wearing what, and who had the female attorney and who had actually but this is another one of those cases where you're there are so many moments because of cameras to keep an eye on, to where you don't have to rely on reading a news outlet and saying, hey, this is the thing that jumps out at you. You can watch it for yourself and
you see human drama play out. And so I appreciate that we have cameras in the courtroom for this one, but it is telling the story in a way that headlines don't.
That's right, And prosecutors went over the details of why Paul was in such financial straits. This is what we're hearing more of this motive and as you pointed out before the break, that jury's it's not required for prosecutors to show motive, but it certainly helps the jury get
their head around or their heads around this tale. The prosecutors are spending in to know the why behind the what is important when it comes to determining whether or not someone is guilty, And so they went over it gets detailed Paul's bank accounts, I think he had nine of them, but how he spent his money on three Porsches, Tiffany jewelry, living way outside of his means, buying an audi apparently for an alleged mistress in the same time
period that came out in court as well. So they're building this scenario of a man who was trying to live this luxurious life and was stealing money from his brother to pay the bills. And so, yes, we heard Detective Debbie Bassen. We were watching her this week. She was the financial crime investigator for the DA. And it got testy to the point where the judge had to admonish the defense team a couple of times, saying, you're going into areas I don't know that we should be in.
So it got a little it got a little testy in some very specific testimony that actually can be boring when you're talking about finances. But this certainly is a case like I have never seen before. And to watch his facial expressions when all of this is going on, all of these things are being said from his affairs, who his overspending to the allegations of just the most brutal crime, you can imagine. It's remarkable to have the access we've had, and so we certainly appreciate you coming
along with us. We will continue to monitor. This trial is expected to last several more weeks, and we again are awaiting the defense's strategy. They said in opening statements that they are going to throw the third broath Corey under the bus, who they say had the most to gain financially. If he could take out one brother by murder, take out the other brother by framing him, he would wind up solely with that three million dollar life insurance policy.
So we will continue to follow this trial bring you all the details. Thank you as always for listening to Amy and TJ Presents. I'm Amy Robock alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you soon