Joseph A Artesi Sr.

Joseph Anthony Artesi of Egg Harbor Township was a graduate of Vineland High School, a karate expert, and worked as a carpenter in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local Union #623. His father was Joseph A. Artesi Sr. (1940-2020) and mother Carol A. Artesi. He married Carol A. Wood on September 2nd 2006 in Vineland New Jersey. Joseph was convicted in the 1991 death of a Millville man which was later overturned by a state appeals couurt. At the age of 23 he hired a high powered Philadelphia attorney named A. Charles Peruto Jr. Peruto was well known for taking on high profile cases including Gary Heidnick of notorious Philadelphia fame with the "House of Horrors", Joey Coyle who 'found' a fortune that fell off an armored Brinks vehicle and Tanya Darci who dismembered her infant son. On November 5th 1991 Mark Watkins died at the age of 20, eight days after he was critically injured during a fight with Joseph Artesi in Cumberland Mall. Joseph cracked Mark's skull during a fight that started over an autograph signed by a karate student dressed as a ninja turtle for a karate demonstration. Artesi's said it was self defense and the jury did not convict him of aggravated manslaughter. In February 1993 Superior Court Judge George Stanger threw out the conviction saying that he should have instructed the jury to consider aggravated assault with a deadly weapon - Artesi's hands.