St. Laurent

PROVIDENCE –– The lawyer for Anthony M. “The Saint” St. Laurent Sr., who is accused of trying to recruit fellow inmates to kill a Patriarca crime family rival, has moved for a delay, saying St. Laurent has been taken to a Massachusetts hospital from Fort Devens federal prison.

“It has been reported that the defendant is seriously ill and in no position, physically or mentally, to have a legal discussion with counsel,” according to the motion filed Wednesday by Providence lawyer Victor J. Beretta.

The motion requests that all action in the case be delayed until further notice.

A federal grand jury in April indicted St. Laurent on charges of solicitation to commit a crime of violence and murder for hire for a plan to kill Robert P. “Bobby” DeLuca Sr., whom authorities describe as a capo regime in the Patriarca crime family. Authorities say St. Laurent was a made member of the Patriarca crime family.

St. Laurent pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court, Providence, before Magistrate Judge Lincoln Almond, via a video link from Fort Devens on April 20.

St. Laurent is serving a five-year term at Federal Medical Center Devens, in western Massachusetts, for extortion. The motion does not disclose the hospital where St. Laurent has been moved. In 2006, when St. Laurent was sentenced for extortion, he was pushed into court in a wheelchair, suffering from ailments that included heart failure, back problems and dysfunctional bowels.

Beretta’s motion also says St. Laurent’s former lawyer, court-appointed public defender Olin Thompson, “has not formally withdrawn as counsel, nor has he forwarded his discovery to counsel” because he needs to confer with the defendant before he takes any action.

On June 29, Thompson filed a motion to withdraw because St. Laurent had hired private counsel.

mmckinne@projo.com