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Overcast Inmate gets life sentence
Joseph Romano, 51, conspired to kill federal judge, attorney
Joseph Romano, a Levittown man who was convicted by a federal jury on Jan. 23 of conspiring to murder a U.S. district judge and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, according to a press release issued by the U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York.
Romano, 51, was already incarcerated at the Nassau Correctional Center in East Meadow, serving a 15-year sentence for fraud.
According to the release, evidence showed that Romano agreed to pay $40,000 to an undercover police officer, who he thought was a hit man, to kill the federal judge and prosecutor involved in his prior prosecution, and also to cut off the victims’ heads in exchange for a “bonus.” In connection with the murder conspiracy conviction, Romano also forfeited more than $200,000.
Law enforcement authorities learned of Romano’s plot to kill an attorney and the judge in August 2012 from another inmate at the Nassau County Correctional Center. The informant reported that Romano said he wanted to torture and kill the judge and attorney, and asked him for assistance in arranging for a hit man to carry out the murders.
During an FBI investigation, two undercover law enforcement officers, posing as hit men, met with Romano and his co-conspirator Dejvid Mirkovic numerous times at locations on Long Island, including the Correctional Center, according to the release. According to the indictment, the meetings occurred between August and October 2012.
“In an attempt to subvert the justice system, this defendant attempted to murder a sitting federal judge and a federal prosecutor,” said U.S. Attorney William Hochul. “Originally sentenced to 15 years for fraud, Joseph Romano will now spend the rest of his natural life behind bars because of his heinous crimes.”
