The teenage son of an ex New Jersey cop who is accused of murdering two high school girls in a hit-and-run with his Jeep last year plans to use the insanity defense, his lawyers revealed in court Monday.
Vincent Battiloro’s attorneys told a judge that they would bring up the teen’s mental health to try to get him off the hook for killing 17-year-old Cranford High School seniors Maria Niotis and Isabella Salas on Sept. 29, 2025.
“The court has received … the notice of defenses that you have put forward of diminished capacity and insanity,” Union County Judge Lisa Walsh said.
“Thank you, your honor,” responded Batttiloro’s lawyer, Rubin Sinins.
Sinins entered a plea of not guilty on Battiloro’s behalf during the minutes-long hearing in an Elizabeth courtroom, where his client appeared stone-faced, wearing khaki jail clothes and handcuffed at the front of his body.
Meanwhile, the moms of Niotis and Salas sobbed and stared Battiloro down in the courtroom as they wore t-shirts with photos of their daughters that said, “Justice for Bella and Maria.”
Battiloro, the son of a retired cop and nephew of a local police chief, is accused of stalking Niotis for months before the alleged murders, lawyers for the victims claimed.
The then-17-year-old Garwood teen was allegedly out for revenge after Niotis reported him to the police and got him suspended from school for harassing and stalking her, and her family, according to prosecutors.
The parents for Battiloro, now 18, had also called the cops on him four times in the weeks before the killings, asking for advice from the police on how to handle their troubled son.
His own dad claimed Battiloro sprayed him in the face with mace and took his car, according to prosecutors.
Outside of court Monday, Salas family lawyer, Cory Rothbort told reporters he wasn’t surprised Battiloro planned to use the diminished capacity and insanity defenses.
“I don’t think that surprises anyone,” Rothbort said. “That’s their strategy. That’s their tactic. We prepared the families for that.”
Still, “It doesn’t take away the grief,” Rothbort said.
Niotis family lawyer Brent Bramnick said, “they’re going to use every possible way they can to defend themselves.”
During the hearing, Sinins also said the defense would be seeking to have Battiloro’s case moved to a different jurisdiction, in part because of the media attention it has gotten.
“There have been things that happened in the public eye as well as in the media since the outset of this case that already give rise for the basis of the motion,” Sinins said of his intention to ask for the case to be moved to another court.
Jillian Reyes, with the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, told the judge her office wasn’t offering any plea deal to Battiloro.
“At this point in time, the state is not giving an offer to the defense,” Reyes said.
Battiloro faces up to life in prison if convicted on the two counts of murder he faces.
The teen was initially charged as a juvenile but this summer a judge approved the case getting tried in adult court. Monday was Battiloro’s first in-person appearance.
The day of the killings, Battiloro allegedly got into his Jeep and parked near one of the girls’ homes in Cranford, prosecutors claimed.
Battiloro saw the duo riding e-bikes in the opposite direction down the quiet road of the affluent town, before he whipped his car around and floored it, mowing them down at 70 mph in a 25-mph zone, prosecutors claimed.
He fled on foot and was arrested that day but was released mere hours later into his dad’s care. Battiloro was then arrested again two days later.
The lawyers for the victim families Monday called for the state attorney general’s office to probe if cops improperly handled Battiloro’s case because of his family cop ties.
Battiloro’s dad, Jeffrey Battiloro, is a retired Chatham Borough cop and his uncle is a police chief near Westfield.
