Taj Mahal Birthday Celebration Turned Fatal

The presence of surveillance cameras was meaningless in protecting this innocent victim who fought for his life --

Investigators tracked the couple's activities through surveillance cameras at the garage....

Codefendant is now star witness
Jessica Kisby will get a 30-year prison sentence in exchange for testifying against Craig Arno.
By George Anastasia
Inquirer Staff Writer

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - Bonnie has turned on Clyde. And the horrific story she's telling could seal the fate of her former boyfriend and alleged partner in crime.

Jessica Kisby, 26, who pleaded guilty Tuesday in a carjacking-murder case that began in the garage of Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal Hotel Casino, has moved from being a co-defendant to the star witness.

Her testimony, part of a plea deal that includes a 30-year prison sentence, is expected to strenghten the prosecution's case against her alleged accomplice, Craig Arno, 46.

The couple are accused of the May 2010 abduction and slaying of Martin Caballero, a North Jersey grocer who planned to spend a Friday night with family at the Taj Mahal and ended up stabbed to death, his body dumped along a dirt road.

Kisby and Arno, who had met in prison months earlier, have been described by investigators as a brutal but bumbling Bonnie and Clyde who left a trail of circumstantial evidence that has been used to build the case against them.

The killing of Caballero was part of a crime spree that began with an armed robbery the day before and included kidnapping, assault, murder, car theft, and a botched attempt to flee Atlantic City in a stolen SUV, authorities said.

The crimes were detailed in a 39-count indictment handed up against them in April. Kisby now is prepared to add a first-person account of the events. Last week, she described the slaying of Caballero, 47, as a robbery gone bad.

Arno, she said, stabbed Caballero repeatedly. So many times, she told Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Michael Donio, "I really can't count. . . . It was numerous," according to a report in the Press of Atlantic City.

Caballero was targeted, Kisby said, because he drove "a nice car."

"We figured he had some money," said Kisby, who said she and Arno were in the garage when they saw their mark pull in behind the wheel of a 2009 silver Lincoln MKS.

Caballero, from North Bergen in Hudson County, had just dropped off his wife and daughter at the Taj entrance. They and relatives planned to celebrate the Caballeros' daughter's 21st birthday.

Kisby's confession, delivered coincidentally on Valentine's Day, includes a detailed account of criminal events that began in the Taj Mahal garage the night of May 21 and ended with Kisby's and Arno's arrests in a seedy motel seven days later.

"This was a strong case that now is even stronger," a law enforcement source said after Kisby agreed to cooperate.

Not everyone agrees.

Arno's court-appointed lawyer, Eric Shenkus, said last week that the Prosecutor's Office had made "a deal with the devil" and that he looked forward to challenging Kisby's version of events when she takes the witness stand.

The trial is tentatively set for April.

"It's absolutely a deal with the devil," Shenkus said Thursday from the Atlantic County Public Defender's Office.

He would not discuss particulars, but he said there were numerous "inaccuracies" in Kisby's story.

The thin, sharp-featured woman from nearby Egg Harbor Township faces a prison term with no parole eligibility, according to the plea agreement she reached with authorities.

Her deal stipulates that she must testify truthfully about what she and Arno did.

First Assistant Atlantic County Prosecutor James McClain said he could not comment about what led to the agreement, which apparently had been in the works for weeks. He said that at the Tuesday hearing, Kisby offered a "fairly detailed account" of the couple's criminal actions.

Kisby told Donio that Arno stabbed Caballero so many times Arno ended up out of breath.

She recounted how Caballero fought for his life; how the knife Arno wielded broke; how the victim's bleeding body was stuffed in the trunk of his car while they drove to Kisby's mother's home and got two other knives; how Arno stabbed Caballero multiple times again; and how they eventually dumped the grocer's corpse along a dirt road.

She said they then retrieved a car they had left at the casino garage and she followed Arno, who drove Caballero's Lincoln to Gloucester Township in Camden County and set it on fire.

Authorities allege that shortly after the abduction, the couple forced Caballero to make a withdrawal from an ATM machine. They got about $300, but failed in their attempts to make other withdrawals.

Investigators tracked the couple's activities through surveillance cameras at the garage, at ATMs, and from a gas station where they bought gasoline used to torch the car. The tapes will be played at Arno's trial.

There also was a robbery at a Dunkin' Donuts the day before the killing; an assault at a Kmart store after the couple tried to steal medical supplies to treat burns Arno sustained in the car fire; and a botched attempt to steal an SUV from the garage of a posh Atlantic City condominium complex where Arno's mother and grandmother lived.

In court Tuesday, Kisby said they abandoned the SUV just blocks from the Plaza condo complex after its OnStar monitoring service activated.

The couple then fled to the Golden Key Motel outside Atlantic City, where they were arrested May 28 on carjacking and kidnapping charges.

Two days later, authorities found Caballero's body along a dirt road in Hamilton Township, and the charges against the two were upgraded.

Kisby has pleaded guilty to murder, carjacking, auto theft, aggravated arson, and weapons offenses.

In court on Tuesday, she said there was no plan to kill Caballero.

"We never talked about it," she said. "It just happened."