High Court Cites “Effective Triangulation of Consistent Evidence” Proving Guilt

BOSTON, Sept. 8, 2016— A man twice convicted of murdering Joseph Bottari and Frank Chiuchiolo in the North End 30 years ago has once again been denied a new trial, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

FRANK DiBENEDETTO will continue to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole after the Supreme Judicial Court today affirmed a decision of a judge of the Superior Court denying his motion for a new trial in the Feb. 19, 1986, killings of Bottari and Chiuchiolo. DiBenedetto and LOUIS COSTA were convicted of first-degree murder in 1988 and again after a new trial in 1994.  Costa is also serving life in prison; because he was a juvenile at the time of the murders, however, he is eligible for periodic parole hearings under a 2013 ruling by the SJC. At a hearing earlier this year, Costa unequivocally identified DiBenedetto as his confederate in the cold-blooded murders.

In an earlier motion, DiBenedetto argued that he should be granted a third trial in light of postconviction testing that ruled out either victim as the source of “very small amounts of human DNA” on sneakers he wore at the time of his arrest days after the murders.  That motion was denied by the judge who had presided over the 1994 trial, who found that “[T]he new DNA evidence had at most nominal exculpatory value that was overwhelmed by the strength of the Commonwealth’s case.”  The defendant appealed that decision to the SJC, who, in 2011, remanded the case base to the judge for additional findings.  After making additional findings, the judge again denied the defendant’s motion for a new trial.

DiBenedetto appealed that ruling to a single justice of the SJC, who denied it.  DiBenedetto then appealed the single justice’s denial to the full court, which today concluded that “that the motion judge did not abuse his discretion in denying the defendant’s motion” and accepted the trial judge’s earlier conclusion “that this is not a case in which ‘justice may not have been done.’”

The 26-page decision, written by Justice Margot Botsford, relied upon findings made by the trial judge, including that the DNA evidence had limited exculpatory value and did not present the likelihood of a miscarriage of justice in light of the strong evidence presented at trial: one eyewitness had opportunity to observe the killers for three to five minutes from a bird’s eye vantage point, and his identification and account of the events were corroborated by a second witness who was very familiar with DiBenedetto and Costa and by the testimony of the medical examiner in what Botsford called “an effective triangulation of consistent evidence.”

Jurors at both the 1988 and 1994 trial convicted DiBenedetto and Costa of fatally shooting the victims in what was then known as Slye Park in the North End.  Both juries found that the defendants each shot the victims repeatedly when they arrived at the park for a pre-arranged drug deal because DiBenedetto and Costa believed that the victims intended to rob them.  After an initial round of gunfire in which both victims were struck and fell to the ground, DiBenedetto walked over to Chiuchiolo’s body and shot multiple times at his head.

Katherine Moran is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.  Assistant District Attorney Zachary Hillman of the DA’s Appellate Unit argued the case on appeal.  DiBenedetto was represented by Wendy Sibbison.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.