October 13, 2009
A Suffolk Superior Court jury today convicted Bernard Piscopo of voluntary manslaughter for the June 16, 2007 death of Adam Rich of Revere at the 6 House, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Piscopo will be sentenced tomorrow by Judge Linda Giles, who revoked his bail after the verdict was read today. She could give him up to 20 years in state prison. The DA's office had sought a stiffer second-degree murder verdict.
In his two-week trial, prosecutors charged that Rich and a friend helped break up a fight between Piscopo and another man. Piscopo was kicked out of the bar, but then came back in and punched Rich in the face and then drew a knife, with which he stabbed Rich repeatedly in the back, chest, stomach, legs and hand. As Rich began to die, Piscopo fled out the back.
The jury deliberated for three days, at one point telling the judge they were deadlocked. After the judge asked them to try again, they returned with the guilty verdict, the DA's office says.