Mobster appeals murder-for-hire ruling

Reputed mafia captain Anthony “The Saint” St. Laurent is taking his fight against federal murder-for-hire charges to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a motion filed November 13, his attorney Victor Beretta officially notified the courts of his intent to appeal a decision that tossed St. Laurent’s motion to get the murder-for-hire charges dropped.

Last week, Federal Judge William Smith ruled the case against St. Laurent can move toward trial , rebuking the 62-year-old mobster's claim that a 2006 plea agreement with the government cleared him of the charges. Prosecutors argued they had no such deal, and the judge agreed.

“Defendant’s interpretation of the plea bargain finds no support in the text of the agreement, his statements at the plea hearing, or the evidence of the parties’ negotiations,” Judge Smith wrote in the November 10 decision.

St. Laurent’s appeal goes to the First Circuit, but a check of court records shows Beretta has not yet filed with the appellate court. A call to his office has not been returned.

“We will handle it at the Circuit as the government deems appropriate,” said Tom Connell, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha. He declined to comment further.

In January, the U.S. Attorney’s office charged St. Laurent after he allegedly tried, on three separate occasions, to hire would-be hit-men to gun down rival mobster Robert “Bobby” DeLuca. But each time the FBI had a wired informant recording the alleged solicitation attempts.

(Hear extended audio of the FBI wiretaps)

The hit was to go down at DeLuca’s workplace “Sidebar and Grille” in Providence.

St. Laurent is in the middle of a five-year sentence at Fort Devens federal prison in Massachusetts after pleading guilty in an attempted extortion case.