TRENTON — The alleged landscaper-lover of slain Filipina-American Michelle Nyce testified that he and Michelle had sex at a motel room hours before she was beaten to death by her husband, Dr. Jonathan Nyce, at the garage of the Nyce family’s Hopewell Township mansion.

Miguel “Enyo” DeJesus, 34, a native of Puerto Rico and resident of East Windsor, N.J., told the court in his much-anticipated appearance that he tried in vain to end his relationship with Michelle, 34, when Dr. Nyce, now 55, discovered his wife’s infidelity in July 2003.
But Michelle continued to pursue him, De Jesus said, as he depicted Michelle as the aggressor in the relationship.

“I told her, ‘He already knows. This is a big problem. I don’t want to do this anymore,’” DeJesus testified on the third week of the murder trial of Dr. Jonathan Nyce. “I was trying to stop what we were doing...She kept calling me. She said, ‘I need to talk to you.’”

Prosecutors say Dr. Nyce, a scientist and pharmacologist who lost his company months before the murder, killed the mother of his three children in a jealous rage when he discovered she was still involved in the affair she had promised to end.

Defense lawyers, however, claimed that Dr. Nyce killed his wife of 15 years in self-defense when she attacked him with a knife-like weapon.

DeJesus, a married man who has been hiding from the press since being identified as Michelle’s lover, appeared uncomfortable describing their tryst in court, according to The Trenton Times. Nyce glared at him from the defense table, but DeJesus would not meet his gaze, The Trenton Times said.

Speaking with a heavy accent, De Jesus said the affair began as a friendship in the summer of 2002 when he was dispatched by his boss to plant trees at the Nyces’ million-dollar home.

“She asked if she could have my cell phone number,”

De Jesus recalled. “She said she would like to be my friend. I said OK.”

At first, he said, the relationship was platonic, with two of them meeting in restaurants for lunch or for drinks after work. But six months later, he said it turned into a sexual affair, with them meeting almost weekly for afternoons and evenings in motel rooms around Mercer County.

He said their last sexual liaison took place on Jan. 15, 2004 at the Mounts Motel on Route 1 in Lawrence hours before Michelle was murdered.

Dr. Nyce had learned of the affair when a man reportedly called him on the phone demanding $500,000 in exchange for a videotape of his wife having sex with another man. Nyce recognized his wife’s voice, confronted her and she confessed.

In July 2003, an irate Dr. Nyce called his cell phone, De Jesus testified. “He said, ‘If you put your hands on my wife again, you’re going to be a dead man,’” De Jesus said.

Dr. Nyce reported the extortion attempt to police, but the investigation did not bring any charges against De Jesus. Dr. Nyce also charged that De Jesus was making harassing phone calls to him.

In August 2003, a Hopewell Township municipal judge dismissed the complaint on the condition that De Jesus stay away from Michelle and her family for two years. De Jesus swore under oath that he tried.

“But she (Michelle) kept calling me,” he said. “She was so sad.”

De Jesus said the phone calls continued every day.

“I said, ‘I’m working. I can’t be on the phone with you all day,’” De Jesus testified. “I said, ‘I can’t see you every time you want. I gotta do my work.’”

In September 2003, the sexual affair resumed, with the pair once again meeting almost weekly.

Assistant Prosecutor Tom Meidt, co-counsel with Doris Galuchie in the case against Dr. Nyce, showed DeJesus a series of autopsy photos of Michelle.

Without allowing the jury to see the photos, Meidt asked DeJesus if the face, head and hand injuries were on Michelle when he last saw her. DeJesus said they were not.

Under cross-examination, defense attorney Robin Lord focused on De Jesus’ history of using false names, fake Social Security numbers and phony birth dates.

Clearly uncomfortable, De Jesus tugged at the collar of his dress shirt and repeatedly ran his hands over his face as he tried to explain his use of aliases, The Trenton Times reported.
One alias he said he used during a one-night stand with a woman. Another he used to avoid making child support payments for the child that resulted from that liaison. He admitted using a fake name with Michelle and in several courts of law.

But when Lord continued questioning De Jesus about his use of aliases, Superior Court Judge Bill Mathesius cut her off.

“What do you care why he uses different names?” he thundered from the bench. “It’s not relevant to this case.”

Lord has argued that Dr. Nyce believed De Jesus, with his history of fake names, posed an immediate and real threat to his family. That belief influenced his state of mind the night of the killing, she has argued.

Lord also accused De Jesus of the extortion attempt.

“You had a particular interest in the Nyces’ financial situation, did you not, sir?” she asked De Jesus.

De Jesus denied the allegation, but admitted he knew the family’s lavish home was listed on the real estate market in 2003 for $1.6 million and that Michelle often wore a watch valued at $1,100.

Under cross-examination, De Jesus testified that Michelle routinely wore her wedding rings during their sexual encounters. He also said she had received a cell phone call during their last evening at the Mounts Motel. The defense has argued it was Dr. Nyce trying in vain to reach his wife.

“She shut the phone off. She didn’t answer it,” De Jesus said.

De Jesus, known to Michelle as Alexander Castenade, was the last person to see Michelle before she was killed, police said.
Prosecutors say Dr. Nyce murdered his wife — a cosmetics consultant at Macy’s — in a fit of rage after Michelle came home from a late tryst with De Jesus.

“The defendant grabbed Michelle and threw her down on the concrete smashing her skull,” the prosecutor said.

Michelle was found dead behind the wheel of her Toyota Land Cruiser partially submerged in Jacobs Creek.

Police said Dr. Nyce made Michelle’s death to look like a car accident when he actually drove her SUV, with her corpse behind the wheel, into a partially frozen creek.

During the trial, jurors heard an audio recording of Dr. Nyce’s confession to police.
On the tape Dr. Nyce tells police that he killed his wife in self defense when she attacked him with a knife-like object.

The defense tried to prevent jurors from hearing the tape on the grounds that police denied Dr. Nyce access to an attorney before he made it. The judge ruled last month that the tape was admissible as evidence.