American homicide: convicted along with his father Anthony “Cleo” for the Charlestown restaurant massacre in which four men were shot to death and a fifth survived only because Cleo ran out of bullets. A third shooter, Vincent Perez, was convicted of possession of a firearm but not of murder. Killed in a barrage of bullets were Robert Luisi, 55, his son Roman, 25, his nephew Anthony Sarro, 32, and family friend Anthony Pelosi, 53. Wounded was Richard Sarro, 28.
Defense attorneys claimed that the Clemente’s lived in fear of the Luisi family, a North End gang with whom they had been feuding. On the night prior to the shooting the two seniors of the two factions had come to blows at a local café. On 11/06/1995 Damian and Perez were eating at the 99 Restaurant in Charlestown, Massachusetts when the Luisi’s entered. When threats were exchanged, Damian called his dad, who soon showed up. When Roman Luisi got up and reached for something, the shooting started. Two off-duty officers who were eating in the restaurant were not able to stop the instant carnage, but did arrest the Clemente father and son along with Perez.
Cleo Clemente was an army vet who was 100% disabled with post-traumatic stress disorder from his one year in Vietnam. He was hyper-sensitive to perceived threats to his and his family’s safety.
The first juror was selected on 4/08/1997 for the trial and the guilty verdict for Anthony and Danian Clemente came in on 5/10/1997.