The 25-year-old Bridgeport man suspected of shooting a 31-year-old Pembroke dance teacher outside her home has been charged with murder-for-hire.
Authorities say Dorian Membreno shot Marybeth Banks, a Pembroke dance instructor, several times in her car on March 23. She is recovering at a Boston hospital.
Banks’ former boyfriend allegedly hired Dorian Membreno to drive to Pembroke from Connecticut to kill Banks in exchange for payment, according to the complaint that was unsealed on Monday.
Police in Massachusetts said they believed that Anthony DeJoseph, of Wolcott, hired Membreno.
Banks took out a protective order against DeJoseph, stemming from an alleged attack on New Year’s Day 2009 in which he broke her ribs, the Boston Globe reports.
When Membreno pulled into Banks’ driveway that March evening, Membreno allegedly approached the car and shot her multiple times, fled the scene and was stopped by Hanover Police a short time later, according to a news release from the U.S. Department for Justice.
Membreno had the gun, photographs of Banks and driving directions from Connecticut to Banks’ workplace in Hanover, Massachusetts, according to the affidavit.
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“Mr. Membreno is charged with the unconscionable act of plotting to kill someone,” U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said. “Anyone who commits or attempts to commit violent acts in an attempt to murder will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Membreno will appear in court at 2:45 p.m. on Monday.
DeJoseph is in custody in Connecticut. Waterbury police arrested him and charged him with assault stemming from a St. Patrick's Day bar fight.
After his arrest, Massachusetts police alerted them that he might have orchestrated the alleged murder-for-hire plot.
Wolcott police searched then DeJoseph's home and found eight guns, the newspaper reports. On Thursday, he was charged with eight counts of criminal possession of a firearm and violation of a protective order.
He is due in court on April 14 to face those charges.
