Ceasar Medeiros, center, and Margaret Botelho, to his right, listen yesterday in Kent County District Court as a jury finds Alfred “Freddie” Bishop guilty of murdering their brother, Gabriel Medeiros. The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

WARWICK — Alfred “Freddie” Bishop sat with his cheek resting on his right fist as the jury read its verdict yesterday in Kent County Superior Court.

He’d heard it all before.

“Guilty,” the foreman repeated to each of the seven counts lodged against Bishop for the 2007 murder of Gabriel Medeiros.

The victim’s family quietly celebrated behind the prosecution table, dabbing their eyes with tissues or silently bowing their heads. At the defense table, Bishop scratched his ear.

A jury of three men and nine women found that Bishop broke into 43 Warwick Lake Ave. after midnight on June 28, 2007, killing Medeiros and wounding two other people in the ensuing struggle.

The verdict means that Bishop, described as one of the state’s most dangerous men, is heading back to the place where he’s spent most of his life — the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Alfred "Freddie" Bishop as a jury finds him guilty of murder yesterday. The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

Bishop, 66, was found guilty of one count each of first-degree murder, burglary and discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence resulting in death, and two counts each of discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence resulting in serious bodily injury and assault with a dangerous weapon. The jury also found that Bishop committed the murder intentionally during the commission of the burglary — a designation that means he could receive life without the possibility for parole for his crimes.

The sentence would be akin to insurance, though, said Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch. Bishop was on parole from a life sentence for a 1973 murder, and state law mandates that since he’s been convicted of another capital offense, his parole must be revoked permanently. The state Parole Board will hold a hearing to revoke his parole.

“He’s a convicted murderer for the second time and for that he will never get outside of that prison again,” Lynch said outside the courthouse yesterday. “He will die in jail and that is something I will never shed a tear over.”

Gabriel Medeiros, 35, lived in the basement at 43 Warwick Lake Ave., the home of his brother Ceasar, 44, and sister-in-law, Claire.

Ceasar Medeiros testified that he woke up that June night to quiet his barking dog and was met in the hallway by Bishop, who was wearing a ski mask and holding a gun. He pleaded with Bishop, and went to get money and jewelry he kept in another room. When he saw he hadn’t been followed, he bypassed the jewelry box and went for a golf club he kept in the closet. He came into the hallway swinging.

The club left a large gash on Bishop’s head before the gun went off. The fight moved through the house and into the kitchen, where Gabriel Medeiros emerged and lunged at the man, according to his brother’s testimony. The bullet entered Gabriel’s back, just beneath his left shoulder. He lost consciousness almost instantly.

Ceasar Medeiros continued to fight with Bishop, stabbing him with the now-broken golf club until he ran out of energy and Bishop scrambled out of the back door.

The police never found a gun, but they did find Bishop’s blood, hair and DNA around the Medeiros home. Bishop took the stand in his own defense, claiming he went to the house after hearing somebody calling his name from the driveway and walked into an ambush.

Prosecutor John Corrigan, during his closing argument yesterday morning, called Bishop’s version of events “preposterous” and “completely incompatible with the evidence.”

“There was no wacky kidnapping or assassination attempt. That came as the wall of evidence was built around the defendant,” Corrigan said. “What you heard yesterday was the result of him trying to slip out the back door ...”

The jury took less than two hours to agree.

Bishop turned into a cold-blooded killer in December 1973. Before then, he ran with local mobsters and he shook down bars for protection money, mugged bookies and did whatever was needed to earn a few bucks. But that month, he stood outside the living room window of a house in Warwick and emptied his shotgun into his friend, James Dunn, who was standing on the other side. During the final moments of his life, Dunn whispered to the police and medics, “Bishop shot me.”

A Superior Court sent Bishop to prison for the next 33 years.

“Inside the prison, he’s the man,” said State Police Lt. Col. Steven G. O’Donnell. “He’s very streetwise and street smart. Very sinister. He has the potential to corrupt the system.”

Bishop intimidated inmates and guards, and for a time, he was allowed to keep a pet goat in his cell that he named after the warden. In 1978, corrections officials shipped Bishop and 14 other troublemakers out of state. Bishop bounced to prisons in Pennsylvania, Maine and New Hampshire. In his travels, he was accused of planning prison uprisings and he was once considered a prime suspect in the murder of an inmate.

In 1989, he was returned to Rhode Island where then-Corrections Director John J. Moran kept him locked up in Maximum Security. Moran refused to transfer Bishop to a lower security unit and word spread that the career criminal vowed to kill Moran.

On Aug. 16, 2006, Bishop was paroled and placed on home confinement for six months, but his freedom was short-lived. He was arrested in July 2007 for Medeiros’ murder and has remained in police custody while he awaited trial.

Jurors weren’t allowed to hear about Bishop’s prior crimes or jail time. However, they did know that he was on parole at the time of the incident, and had been convicted of a felony.

Sentencing has been set for May 15 before Judge Edwin J. Gale.

—With reports from W. Zachary Malinowski

tbuford@projo.com