Robert “Bobby” DeLuca a veteran Rhode Island mobster, was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for lying to federal investigators about the murder of Boston nightclub owner in the 1990s, the Department of Justice announced.
DeLuca, 72, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Denis Casper to 66 months in prison and three years of supervised release. DeLuca pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and two counts of making false statements.
DeLuca was a crucial witness in the murder trial of former mob boss Frank “Cadillac Frank” Salemme and his associate Paul Weadick. They were found guilty in the 1993 gangland slaying of Steven DiSarro, a Providence native and owner of a Boston nightclub.
In 2011, DeLuca told federal investigators that he didn’t know what happened to DiSarro. DiSarro’s body was exhumed from a makeshift grave behind an old factory building off Branch Avenue in Providence in 2016.
DeLuca was a career criminal and member of the Patriarca crime family. He harkened to the days when mobsters with names such as “Bobo” and “Blackjack” roamed the streets of Providence’s Federal Hill neighborhood and gangland murders were a regular feature of life in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
DeLuca will be given credit for time served after his arrest in 2016.
