Man to serve 27 years for slaying

PROVIDENCE — A local man was sentenced this week to serve 27 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he shot a man outside a Hartford Park nightclub in 2006 and murdered a man in Providence last summer, according to the attorney general’s office.

Luis Mercado, 37, formerly of 120 Corliss St., was sentenced to 60 years, but with 33 years suspended, in the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Mercado was arraigned last week for the June 25 murder of Virgilio Rojo, in Providence.

He also was being retried on charges that he shot Victor Cortes in the head in 2006 in the parking lot of Club Giza, in Providence’s Hartford section. His first trial ended in a mistrial in September.

Just before opening statements were to begin in the Cortes case, Mercado pleaded guilty to one count each of assault with a dangerous weapon and possessing a firearm after having previously committed a crime of violence.

The state agreed to dismiss two additional counts of carrying a pistol without a license and one count of discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence.

A charge of assault with intent to commit specified felonies had been previously dismissed.

Judge Robert D. Krause sentenced Mercado to 20 years, with 5 to serve, on the assault charge and 10 years to serve concurrently for the gun possession charge.

At the same time, Mercado pleaded guilty to one count of murder and one count of carrying a pistol without a license in the Rojo slaying.

Krause sentenced him to 60 years, with 27 to serve, for Rojo’s murder and a concurrent sentence of 10 years to serve for carrying a pistol without a license. The remaining 33 years were suspended with probation.

The state agreed to dismiss a count of discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence and a count of possessing a firearm after having committed a crime of violence.

The sentences in both cases are to be served concurrently.

Mercado had been held at the ACI since he was arrested on Aug. 15.

— Projo.com staff writer Maria Armental

Guilty plea in check fraud scheme

PROVIDENCE — A Coventry woman yesterday pleaded guilty in federal court to making fraudulent checks on a computer and shipping them in what prosecutors say was an international scheme that tried to get check recipients to wire back money.

Nancy Alexander, 66, of Victory Highway, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud involving about $1.7 million in counterfeit checks and money orders, admitting she made fraudulent checks and forwarded others that had been shipped to her from Nigeria, according to U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente’s office.

The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Alexander is free on bond pending an April 3 sentencing hearing.

Prosecutor Lee H. Vilker said in court yesterday that the government could prove that those behind the scheme provided Alexander with information to create and mail counterfeit checks, including payee names and addresses, check amounts and counterfeit shipping labels. Alexander created on her home computer about 291 counterfeit checks “totaling $1.6 million in purported value” and shipped them to intended victims throughout the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Unknown people contacted the victims to try to persuade them to deposit the counterfeit checks and wire some of the “purported value” to another account, Corrente’s office said.

According to a Secret Service affidavit in the criminal complaint filed against Alexander in July, agents intercepted a parcel in April addressed to Alexander that contained 119 counterfeit checks and money orders, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. The parcel originated in Nigeria and had been shipped through France.

Agents found that victims and intended victims were approached in several ways. For instance, one was approached after she posted a resumé online; another had advertised a pool heater for sale in a local newspaper; and a third had been seeking a work-from-home job. All were asked to cash checks in various amounts, keep some of the money and wire the balance to other accounts.

All the checks turned out to be counterfeit and victims lost money they had wired back — ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. Other targets either waited for the checks to clear, which they did not, or did not respond at all.

— Projo.com Staff Writer Michael P. McKinney

Man charged in string of thefts

A man charged in a string of thefts in three communities was being held without bail as the police complete investigations in Cranston, Warwick and North Kingstown.

Jason Bruno, 38, whose last known address was in Warwick, faces charges in a series of thefts from buildings, boats and at least one car, authorities said yesterday.

He was arrested in Cranston on Nov. 8 on charges that he broke into several boats at the Port Edgewood Marina and the Rhode Island Yacht Club, and he has since been charged with multiple counts of breaking and entering in North Kingstown and one count of larceny in Warwick.

His arrest helped the Cranston police in another case, one involving two incidents of breaking and entering at a condominium complex on Hoffman Avenue, said Maj. Ronald T. Blackmar. The suspect broke into the basement of the complex, rummaged through 19 storage areas and used a small kitchen area to make dinner, helping himself to, among other things, some Barilla bow tie pasta.

Police detectives took a fingerprint from the pasta box, but they could not trace it to anyone until they arrested Bruno and discovered they had a match, Blackmar said.

In the Cranston incidents, Bruno is charged with larceny over $500 and receiving stolen goods over $500, breaking and entering, vandalism and resisting arrest, said Blackmar and Michael J. Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

In the North Kingstown incidents, he faces multiple counts of breaking and entering into a building at night, one count of larceny over $500 and multiple counts of vandalism, according to court records.

In the Warwick case he is charged with larceny over $500, for allegedly stealing a laptop computer and a GPS from a motor vehicle, Healey said.

Bruno was being held as a probation violator because he pleaded no contest earlier this year to unlawful appropriation over $1,000. He received a three-year suspended sentence and four years’ probation in that case and also had to make restitution, Healey said.

Probation violation hearings are scheduled for Tuesday in Kent County Superior Court and Dec. 1 in Washington County Superior Court, Healey said. If deemed to be a violator, the attorney general’s office can ask that he serve up to the three years he received as a suspended sentence, Healey said.

Bruno also has a pre-arraignment hearing scheduled for Jan. 9 in Providence County Superior Court.

— Randal Edgar

Pharmacist guilty in drug fraud

PROVIDENCE — A 73-year-old pharmacist who co-owned a Providence drugstore pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to misbranding drugs, illegally distributing controlled substances and health-care fraud.

Carmine DeTomasis, who was co-owner of Prime Drug, on Cranston Street, admitted in U.S. District Court that he illegally bought prescription drugs from Louis Romanelli and illegally sold pharmaceuticals to Romanelli, according to a U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente’s office.

DeTomasis also admitted submitting false reimbursement claims to health-insurance carriers for prescription drugs the store had not dispensed.

Projo.com reported in May that the state Department of Health shut down the pharmacy.

Romanelli, 81, of Providence, has pleaded guilty to his role in the drug-distribution conspiracy and awaits sentencing.

At DeTomasis’ plea hearing, prosecutor Adi Goldstein said the government could show that several times this year Romanelli went to Prime Drug, often after business hours, and sold DeTomasis prescription medications — often those used to treat HIV/AIDS.

An undercover agent got prescription medications from another pharmacy and sold them to Romanelli, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Romanelli also got controlled substances such as hydrocodone from DeTomasis at Prime Drug.

— Projo.com Staff Writer Michael P. McKinney