State v. Miraballes — Palo Mayombe grave-robbing

Cited record

Sources

State v. Miraballes, 392 N.J. Super. 342 (App. Div. 2007). Available at: courtlistener.com (Accessed: 14 July 2026).

A New Jersey appellate opinion documents a Palo Mayombe grave-robbing conspiracy in which a police detective testified as a court-qualified expert on the religion: 'The gist of the State's case was that defendant conspired with co-defendant Gonzalez, who pled guilty and testified for the prosecution, to steal human remains from several cemeteries in Newark, for use in rituals associated with the non-traditional religion known as Palo Mayombe (Palo), of which defendant was alleged to have been a ‘high priestess.’ ... Shown a photograph of one of the cauldrons found at 22 Bloomfield Avenue, he identified it as an ‘Nganga,’ which ‘is the central focus point of the practice of Palo Mayombe.’... It is very relevant. In Palo Mayombe, you must have, if you can get access to, a whole human structure. It is also believed in Palo that the longer a person has been buried, the more spiritual power that skeleton will have.'