Ex-Officer Who Hired Hit Man to Kill Her Husband and Young Girl Is Sentenced
Valerie Cincinelli, who resigned from the New York Police Department, was given four years in prison for seeking to enlist her boyfriend in a murder-for-hire scheme.
Valerie Cincinelli in a courthouse on Long Island in 2019.Credit...Howard Schnapp for Newsday
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
Oct. 29, 2021
A former New York City police officer accused of orchestrating a botched murder-for-hire plot — in which she asked her boyfriend to hire a hit man to kill her estranged husband and his teenage daughter — was sentenced on Friday to four years in prison.
The former officer, Valerie Cincinelli, 37, pleaded guilty in April to obstruction of justice, one of three counts she faced in connection with the scheme. Her lawyers had asked a federal judge on Long Island to sentence her to time served. (She has been in custody since her May 2019 arrest.) Federal prosecutors had sought a five-year term.
Ms. Cincinelli was suspended without pay after her arrest and resigned from the Police Department in March, the police said.
In a sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors pointed to the violent and specific detail in Ms. Cincinelli’s communications with her boyfriend, who she thought was conspiring with her but was, in fact, recording their conversations for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Ms. Cincinelli’s lawyer, James Kousouros, had argued that she did not believe the murder-for-hire plot would be carried out. He wrote in his sentencing memorandum that her boyfriend, John DiRubba, had manipulated her, left her in a “broken and compromised state” and reported her to the authorities out of a desire for revenge.
After the sentencing in federal court in Central Islip, N.Y., on Friday, Mr. Kousouros said he was pleased with the sentence, which he felt reflected the judge’s understanding of his client’s troubled relationship with Mr. DiRubba. Ms. Cincinelli, he added, will be eligible under sentencing rules for release to home confinement in about five months.
“This was a very, very long and emotional journey for everybody,” Mr. Kousouros said.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
The sentencing concludes a ripped-from-the-tabloids tale of passion, jealousy and betrayal.
Ms. Cincinelli started dating Mr. DiRubba in around 2017, court filings show. The daughter of a former New York City officer, she had served about a decade in the Police Department, including with a domestic violence unit in Queens; Mr. DiRubba said he was making a living “building and flipping houses.” The two were soon inseparable, Mr. DiRubba later said: They got matching “’til death” tattoos on their left hands.
In letters filed with the court in advance of sentencing, Ms. Cincinelli’s friends and family members said they were suspicious of Mr. DiRubba, whom they described as a “con artist” who claimed to be a former F.B.I. agent; they said he was possessive and manipulative.
Their relationship grew bumpy: Between late 2017 and early 2018, court filings show, the two sought protective orders against each other. In 2017, Ms. Cincinelli was disciplined by the Police Department for sharing confidential information with Mr. DiRubba.
At the same time, Ms. Cincinelli was embroiled in protracted divorce proceedings with her estranged husband, Isaiah Carvalho, Jr., a relationship that itself had been tumultuous: Both parties had restraining orders against the other. In early 2019, she became fixated on Mr. Carvalho’s possible claim to her pension, according to Mr. DiRubba and prosecutors’ filings.
Ms. Cincinelli also grew resentful of Mr. DiRubba’s teenage daughter and the expensive gifts he bought her, prosecutors said. In conversations cited by prosecutors from around the time of the attempted hit, Ms. Cincinelli uses graphic language to describe Mr. DiRubba’s daughter as sexually promiscuous; she also followed the teen’s social media pages.
Prosecutors said Ms. Cincinelli asked Mr. DiRubba to hire a hit man to kill them both. In February 2019, she withdrew $7,000 from a local bank and gave it to Mr. DiRubba, who converted the money into gold coins to pay the hit man. (Ms. Cincinelli’s lawyer said the money was not for a hit man, but a loan to him.)
Rather than go through with the scheme, Mr. DiRubba contacted the F.B.I., and became a confidential source. In the months that followed, he recorded his conversations with Ms. Cincinelli as she detailed her wish to have the two murdered and detailed ways to execute the plan and avoid scrutiny from law enforcement, court filings show.
In a recorded conversation from May 2019, played in court Friday, Mr. DiRubba and Ms. Cincinelli discussed his concerns about being questioned by law enforcement after the deaths. He said: “I’m just stressing about it, ’cause it’s going to happen.” Ms. Cincinelli replied: “You say that every weekend, for the past month.”
The authorities went to lengths to make it appear that the scheme had worked, court filings show. On May 17, 2019, the Suffolk County Police Department contacted Ms. Cincinelli to say they were investigating Mr. Carvalho’s death. An F.B.I. agent, posing as the hit man, sent Mr. DiRubba a photograph of the supposed crime scene, which he showed to Ms. Cincinelli, according to court filings.
Ms. Cincinelli contacted Mr. DiRubba to get their alibis in order and told him to delete their text conversations from his phone, prosecutors said. Later that day, Ms. Cincinelli was taken into custody and charged with use of interstate commerce for murder for hire. (Prosecutors dismissed the murder-for-hire counts as part of her plea.)
At the sentencing, prosecutors sought to dispel Ms. Cincinelli’s contention that Mr. DiRubba had manipulated her, saying she had repeatedly pushed him to complete the murders.
Ms. Cincinelli addressed the court on Friday, her lawyer said, apologizing for any harm she caused.
ADVERTISEMENT
Valerie Cincinelli, who resigned from the New York Police Department, was given four years in prison for seeking to enlist her boyfriend in a murder-for-hire scheme.
Valerie Cincinelli in a courthouse on Long Island in 2019.Credit...Howard Schnapp for Newsday
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
Oct. 29, 2021
A former New York City police officer accused of orchestrating a botched murder-for-hire plot — in which she asked her boyfriend to hire a hit man to kill her estranged husband and his teenage daughter — was sentenced on Friday to four years in prison.
The former officer, Valerie Cincinelli, 37, pleaded guilty in April to obstruction of justice, one of three counts she faced in connection with the scheme. Her lawyers had asked a federal judge on Long Island to sentence her to time served. (She has been in custody since her May 2019 arrest.) Federal prosecutors had sought a five-year term.
Ms. Cincinelli was suspended without pay after her arrest and resigned from the Police Department in March, the police said.
In a sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors pointed to the violent and specific detail in Ms. Cincinelli’s communications with her boyfriend, who she thought was conspiring with her but was, in fact, recording their conversations for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Ms. Cincinelli’s lawyer, James Kousouros, had argued that she did not believe the murder-for-hire plot would be carried out. He wrote in his sentencing memorandum that her boyfriend, John DiRubba, had manipulated her, left her in a “broken and compromised state” and reported her to the authorities out of a desire for revenge.
After the sentencing in federal court in Central Islip, N.Y., on Friday, Mr. Kousouros said he was pleased with the sentence, which he felt reflected the judge’s understanding of his client’s troubled relationship with Mr. DiRubba. Ms. Cincinelli, he added, will be eligible under sentencing rules for release to home confinement in about five months.
“This was a very, very long and emotional journey for everybody,” Mr. Kousouros said.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
The sentencing concludes a ripped-from-the-tabloids tale of passion, jealousy and betrayal.
Ms. Cincinelli started dating Mr. DiRubba in around 2017, court filings show. The daughter of a former New York City officer, she had served about a decade in the Police Department, including with a domestic violence unit in Queens; Mr. DiRubba said he was making a living “building and flipping houses.” The two were soon inseparable, Mr. DiRubba later said: They got matching “’til death” tattoos on their left hands.
In letters filed with the court in advance of sentencing, Ms. Cincinelli’s friends and family members said they were suspicious of Mr. DiRubba, whom they described as a “con artist” who claimed to be a former F.B.I. agent; they said he was possessive and manipulative.
Their relationship grew bumpy: Between late 2017 and early 2018, court filings show, the two sought protective orders against each other. In 2017, Ms. Cincinelli was disciplined by the Police Department for sharing confidential information with Mr. DiRubba.
At the same time, Ms. Cincinelli was embroiled in protracted divorce proceedings with her estranged husband, Isaiah Carvalho, Jr., a relationship that itself had been tumultuous: Both parties had restraining orders against the other. In early 2019, she became fixated on Mr. Carvalho’s possible claim to her pension, according to Mr. DiRubba and prosecutors’ filings.
Ms. Cincinelli also grew resentful of Mr. DiRubba’s teenage daughter and the expensive gifts he bought her, prosecutors said. In conversations cited by prosecutors from around the time of the attempted hit, Ms. Cincinelli uses graphic language to describe Mr. DiRubba’s daughter as sexually promiscuous; she also followed the teen’s social media pages.
Prosecutors said Ms. Cincinelli asked Mr. DiRubba to hire a hit man to kill them both. In February 2019, she withdrew $7,000 from a local bank and gave it to Mr. DiRubba, who converted the money into gold coins to pay the hit man. (Ms. Cincinelli’s lawyer said the money was not for a hit man, but a loan to him.)
Rather than go through with the scheme, Mr. DiRubba contacted the F.B.I., and became a confidential source. In the months that followed, he recorded his conversations with Ms. Cincinelli as she detailed her wish to have the two murdered and detailed ways to execute the plan and avoid scrutiny from law enforcement, court filings show.
In a recorded conversation from May 2019, played in court Friday, Mr. DiRubba and Ms. Cincinelli discussed his concerns about being questioned by law enforcement after the deaths. He said: “I’m just stressing about it, ’cause it’s going to happen.” Ms. Cincinelli replied: “You say that every weekend, for the past month.”
The authorities went to lengths to make it appear that the scheme had worked, court filings show. On May 17, 2019, the Suffolk County Police Department contacted Ms. Cincinelli to say they were investigating Mr. Carvalho’s death. An F.B.I. agent, posing as the hit man, sent Mr. DiRubba a photograph of the supposed crime scene, which he showed to Ms. Cincinelli, according to court filings.
Ms. Cincinelli contacted Mr. DiRubba to get their alibis in order and told him to delete their text conversations from his phone, prosecutors said. Later that day, Ms. Cincinelli was taken into custody and charged with use of interstate commerce for murder for hire. (Prosecutors dismissed the murder-for-hire counts as part of her plea.)
At the sentencing, prosecutors sought to dispel Ms. Cincinelli’s contention that Mr. DiRubba had manipulated her, saying she had repeatedly pushed him to complete the murders.
Ms. Cincinelli addressed the court on Friday, her lawyer said, apologizing for any harm she caused.
ADVERTISEMENT
