BAIL DENIED AS ’96 MURDER HEADS BACK TO TRIAL

A Suffolk Superior Court judge has denied a request for bail by a man found guilty of three shootings – one of them fatal – but whose convictions were overturned on appeal last year, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

JOHN BACIGALUPO (D.O.B. 12/12/67) of East Boston and another man were convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Robert Nogeira and armed assault with intent to murder for the non-fatal shootings of two other men, all in the early morning hours of Nov. 24, 1996.

Bacigalupo and his co-defendant, GARY CARTER (D.O.B. 8/20/72) of Winthrop, were sentenced to the mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

At a hearing Thursday, defense attorney Janice Bassil asked Judge Patrick Brady to set bail for Bacigalupo and release him to house arrest while his case is pending. Conley has said his office intends to re-try Bacigalupo for the murder and attempted murders, and Assistant District Attorney Patrick Haggan urged Brady to continue holding the defendant without bail in light of the seriousness of the charges and the sentence he faces if convicted.

Brady ruled on Friday that Bacigalupo would continue to be held.

Prosecutors said during the 2001 trial that Bacigalupo and Carter were in debt to the surviving victims when they followed the men to Club Caravan in Revere and opened fire on them at about 1:00 a.m. One victim was hit in the buttocks and the other in the back and arm.

The gunmen then allegedly traveled to the Comfort Inn on the Revere-Saugus line and fired 20 rounds from two handguns at Nogueira, killing him.

In December 2009, the Supreme Judicial Court reversed Bacigalupo’s conviction on the grounds that a statement by Carter implicating Bacigalupo should not have been introduced as evidence.

Kara Hayes is the DA’s victim-witness advocate on the case. Bacigalupo will return to court on July 23 for a status hearing.