Copyright 2003 Providence Publications, LLC  
Providence Journal-Bulletin (Rhode Island)
December 20, 2003, Saturday All Editions
SECTION: News; Pg. A-01

LENGTH: 1001 words

HEADLINE: Mob associate's trial ends with hung jury

BYLINE: W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI, Journal Staff Writer

BODY:
* Linked to a sports-betting operation, Vito DeLuca remains free on bail while the state decides whether to retry the case.

* * *

PROVIDENCE - A mistrial was declared in the trial of a longtime mob associate yesterday after a jury failed to reach a verdict on charges that he participated in a lucrative gambling ring.

Vito DeLuca, 59, of Seekonk, a reputed soldier in the Patriarca crime family, seemed relieved by the jury's failure to find him guilty of four charges of aiding and abetting a sports-betting operation. The authorities say the ring brought in more than $600,000 in one month in late 1999.

The jury, in Superior Court, Providence, deliberated for two days and remained deadlocked.

DeLuca, a heavyset man with gray, brushed-back hair, said he was going to celebrate at a restaurant. Asked where, DeLuca smiled and said, "I'm Italian. Pasta."

There was more at stake than just the gambling charges, including two felonies, that he was on trial for. If convicted, DeLuca might have found himself on a one-way flight to Italy.

In 1997, a judge for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, citing a pair of felony convictions, ordered DeLuca deported to Italy, where he was born and remains a citizen.

At DeLuca?s deportation hearing in Boston, an INS prosecutor cited DeLuca?s 1992 conviction for mail fraud and a 1977 extortion conviction as the basis for his deportation.

DeLuca appealed the ruling. No final judgment has been reached on his deportation. A conviction in the gambling case would not have helped his appeal. So, for now, DeLuca remains free on $2,500 bail while the state attorney general?s office decides whether it will retry the case.

IN DECEMBER 1999, the state police, FBI and Providence police arrested DeLuca and two other prominent Rhode Island organized crime figures ? Anthony M. ??The Saint?? St. Laurent and Rudolph ??The Captain?? Sciarra, charging them with participating in the gambling ring. Sixteen others were also arrested.

At the time, St. Laurent, who was serving a federal prison sentence in Kentucky for extortion, supervised the operation from his prison cell. He remained in telephone contact with Sciarra and bookmakers in Rhode Island.

St. Laurent, Sciarra and 16 others pleaded guilty or no contest to various criminal charges. DeLuca was the only defendant who chose to go to trial.

The trial against DeLuca was unusual.

Assistant Attorney General Paul Daly, chief of the criminal division, played about 90 recorded calls over four days.

House Speaker William J. Murphy served as DeLuca?s lawyer. He filed a motion before the trial started, asking Judge Edward C. Clifton to bar the state from characterizing his client ??as an alleged member of organized crime.??

Murphy argued that the reference would unfairly prejudice his client. Clifton agreed with Murphy.

The sole prosecution witness was Detective Sgt. Donald F. Devine Jr., who heads the state police Intelligence Unit. The rest of the case consisted of court-authorized wiretapped telephone conversations of St. Laurent, Sciarra and others.

Murphy called no witnesses.

Many of the phone calls featured threats, salty language and allusions to other well-known organized crime figures.

At times the language is fractured and difficult to follow.

On one tape played in court, Sciarra, in a smoky voice, growls ? about someone who collects gambling debts ? ??He?d take both of your eyeballs out, fry ?em and eat ?em in front of you.??

Sciarra also talks about ??good-looking?? and ??the professor.??

Devine testified that ??good-looking?? is a reference to Matthew Guglielmetti, a capo in the Patriarca crime family, while ??the professor?? is Luigi ??Baby Shacks?? Manocchio, described by law-enforcement authorities as the acting head of New England organized crime. Guglielmetti and Manocchio both live in Rhode Island.

THE MOST DAMAGING evidence against DeLuca was a Nov. 23, 1999, recorded telephone conversation between him and Michael Budz, a bookmaker arrested and convicted in the gambling ring.

At the time, Budz owed about $10,000 to another bookmaker, Joanne Silva.

DeLuca calls Budz and they agree to meet on the grounds of the Veterans Administration hospital on Chalksone Avenue in Providence. DeLuca was working on a construction crew at the hospital.

Devine, the state police detective, set up surveillance at the hospital and photographed the meeting between DeLuca and Budz. Devine used a long lens and was not privy to their conversation.

The photographs were introduced as evidence.

The state never presented evidence that DeLuca placed or handled any bets in the gambling operation. Still, the state maintained that DeLuca assisted Sciarra, St. Laurent, Budz and Silva.

During a break in the trial, a reporter asked DeLuca about references to him as a mob figure.

??People like to read things,?? he said. ??I never took a bet in my life. I never gambled.??

DeLuca said he rises at 5 a.m. each day and works construction.

DeLuca?s criminal record dates from 1962, four years after he arrived in the United States, when he was convicted of assault. He was charged with murder and conspiracy in the 1982 slaying of Anthony ??The Moron?? Mirabella, who was gunned down in an Olneyville restaurant.

During his trial, he was described as an ??associate?? and underling of mobsters Frank L. ??Bobo?? Marrapese and Nicholas L. Bianco. Bianco, who died in federal prison, rose to underboss in the Patriarca crime family. DeLuca was found not guilty of murder in that case.

Over the years, DeLuca has dabbled in real estate, and also ran the former Small World Bakery on Federal Hill. He has also managed professional fighters.

* * *

* DELUCA - PHOTO

* APPROACH THE BENCH: Superior Court Judge Edward C. Clifton, left, confers with defense attorney William J. Murphy and prosecutor Paul Daley in the gambling trial of Vito DeLuca. Court stenographer at far left is Dianne Edson.