Cipriani Sentenced to 200 Years

Benedetto Cipriani, 53, of Meriden, was sentenced to 200 years in a Connecticut prison for a murder-for-hire plot.

On Wednesday, Cipriani said he was innocent and called his conviction a conspiracy crafted by false testimony and fabricated witnesses.

Speaking in Italian and banging on a table to emphasize his points, Cipriani accused Judge Julia Dewey of disrespecting U.S. law by ordering his sentence to be carried out in the U.S.

Cipriani was convicted on conspiracy and accessory to murder charges in December for orchestrating a 2003 triple murder at an auto body shop in Windsor Locks.

Cipriani had been hoping for extradition to Italy, where he holds dual citizenship, but a Connecticut Superior Court judge denied his motion Tuesday morning.

Prosecutors claim he hired three men to kill Robert Stears, 42, the husband of Cipriani’s lover, because she refused to leave her husband. Also shot July 13, 2003 was Stears’ business partner Barry Rossi, 43 and mechanic Lorne Stevens, 43.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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