"The Saint" wants charged dropped

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Claiming a 2006 plea agreement with the Feds cleared him of wrong-doing in a murder-for-hire plot, reputed mafia capo Anthony "The Saint" St. Laurent is asking a federal judge to dismiss the case.

According to court documents obtained by The Target 12 Investigators, St. Laurent's attorney Victor J. Beretta, states the FBI was well aware of the murder attempt against a rival mobster when St. Laurent signed a plea agreement in a 2006 extortion plot.

"In this case the agreement clearly establishes that the government agreed not to charge the defendant with the solicitation for murder, but left it to the state, to decide whether it would," he wrote.

Investigators say St. Laurent was caught on an FBI wiretap inside his Johnston home trying to hire someone to kill fellow capo regime Robert "Bobby" DeLuca at his workplace, Providence restaurant Sidebar and Grill.

DeLuca was scooped up by law enforcement for his protection. St. Laurent was then charged in a separate extortion case in which he tried to shakedown two Massachusetts men, according to court filings. He was not charged in the murder-for-hire case.

Court documents reveal St. Laurent then tried to solicit a gangland slaying a second time. Serving time for the extortion plot, St. Laurent tried to hire someone to gun-down DeLuca from his prison cell, but the feds say the alleged hit man turned out to be an undercover Massachusetts State Trooper.

Beretta argues when his client copped to the extortion charges, he was promised federal prosecutors would leave it up to the Rhode Island Attorney General's office to charge him for the attempted assassination.

The Rhode Island State Police have not charged St. Laurent.

The FBI filed the murder-for-hire charges against St. Laurent in January 2009. The 68-year-old mobster pleaded not guilty a short time later.

Tom Connell, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Providence says they will dispute the motion-to-dismiss in a filing later this month.

Court documents reveal St. Laurent is in failing health. Currently 3 years deep into a five year prison term, "The Saint" spends his time between Fort Devens Federal Prison and an undisclosed Massachusetts hospital.