BOSTON, April 12, 2018—More than a decade after he shot and killed off-duty Revere Police Officer Daniel Talbot, a Revere man admitted his guilt rather than face the new trial he was granted when an appellate court reversed his murder conviction, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

ROBERT IACOVIELLO, Jr., 30, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter today and accepted a 14-year prison term rather than proceed to trial on April 30 for second-degree murder – the charge for which a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted him in 2010, and which the Massachusetts Appeals Court reversed in 2016 after finding flaws in the trial judge’s jury instructions. Second-degree murder carries a life sentence with parole eligibility after 15 years.

Prior to sentencing Iacoviello, Judge Jeffrey Locke heard from Talbot’s former fiancée, who was present for the fatal conflict and testified as a witness at trial.

“Dan was to me and so many others an amazing individual,” she said. “During his five years on the police force he accomplished so much and affected so many people’s lives. He demanded respect in uniform, but yet was compassionate and understanding. He was passionate and driven …. Dan had such an impact on those around him that after his death the Revere Police Department dedicated their community room to Dan, a fundraiser to help kids with cancer was held in his name, and three babies were named after Dan, an honor that will go on for lifetimes. I can’t think of a better testament to who Dan was.”

Given the opportunity to address the court, Iacoviello offered an unconditional apology to Talbot’s family, saying, “I apologize for my actions. I wish it never happened. It shouldn’t have happened. I know a lot of people are going through pain. I know a lot of people are hurting. I know there’s nothing I can do right now. But whatever I can do, I will. I take responsibility for my actions.”

Iacoviello admitted firing the fatal shot after another man – DEREK LODIE – encountered Talbot, who was off-duty, out of uniform, and with a group of friends in the area of Revere High School in the early morning hours of Sept. 29, 2007. Lodie engaged in a verbal altercation with them, then called Iacoviello to the scene in the apparent belief that they were members of a rival group.

Iacoviello traveled to a friend’s house to retrieve a 9mm semiautomatic firearm, then proceeded to the scene. As Lodie re-engaged Talbot and lured him toward the parking lot, Iacoviello arrived, drew the weapon, and fired, hitting Talbot and causing fatal injuries. Talbot had drawn his service weapon when he was shot but never fired it, the trial evidence showed; another off-duty officer discharged his firearm after Iacoviello fired but did not hit anyone.

Iacoviello and his group fled the scene. In the days that followed, they burned Iacoviello’s clothing and dismantled the handgun, which was later recovered in pieces from several storm drains in Revere.

Lodie pleaded guilty as an accessory before the fact to Talbot’s homicide and was sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison. Iacoviello was convicted on Feb. 20, 2010, after three weeks of testimony from some 50 witnesses and about three full days of deliberations. His motion for a new trial was denied in 2014. In 2016, however, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that jurors should have been instructed on self-defense and manslaughter. The Supreme Judicial Court later declined to review that decision despite prosecutors’ arguments that going out of one’s way to arm oneself and then proceeding toward a known conflict was not an act of self-defense, and that the evidence at trial did not suggest an errant shot by the defendant but rather one fired at Talbot’s head.

In accepting Iacoviello’s plea, prosecutors weighed the Talbot family’s loss and egregious nature of the defendant’s actions against the challenges posed by locating the necessary trial witnesses, re-trying the case 11 years later with the additional defense theories imposed by the Appeals Court, and the possibility of conviction on a lesser offense or even acquittal.

Assistant District Edmond Zabin, chief of the DA’s Homicide Unit, responded to the scene that night, prosecuted the case at trial, assisted in arguing before the Appeals Court, and represented the Commonwealth at today’s proceedings. Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Iacoviello was represented by attorney Jonathan Shapiro.

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