BOSTON — A Revere man has been convicted of murdering 50-year-old Ronald Russo of Winthrop and faces life in prison when he is sentenced next week, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
A Suffolk Superior Court jury found Peter Deconinck, 49, guilty of first-degree murder in Russo’s 2013 stabbing death. At his sentencing on March 24, Judge Linda Giles is expected to impose the offense’s mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Assistant District Attorney Masai King presented evidence and testimony to prove that Deconinck, Russo and a third man had been drinking together in a Revere mobile home on the evening of Aug. 24, 2013. Evidence showed the men were involved in several physical altercations during the course of the evening. The third man fled the home after witnessing Deconinck and Russo fighting; each man was armed with a knife.
During the altercation, Deconinck stabbed the victim repeatedly, inflicting dozens of stab wounds and lacerations to his torso and back, the evidence proved.
Revere Police detectives and state troopers assigned to the Suffolk DA’s office arrived at the scene shortly before 8:30 p.m. in response to a 911 call, and discovered Russo’s body covered in blood with a knife in his hand. Shortly thereafter, Revere Police responded to a call reporting a man — later identified as Deconinck — covered in blood at the Beachmont MBTA station. He was suffering from a laceration to his calf and an abrasion to his hand and was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he admitted to investigators that he had been at the home with Russo that evening.
Assistant District Attorney Caitlin Grasso of the DA’s Major Felony Bureau served as second-seat at trial. Erin O’Connor is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Deconinck was represented by attorney James Greenberg. Sentencing will take place March 24 at 9 a.m. in courtroom 907 of Suffolk Superior Court.
