Crime & Safety
Dangerousness Hearing for Camuti Delayed Until Sept. 10
Sudbury native facing attempted murder charge has competency questioned.
A Sudbury man accused of involvement in the death of Stephen Rakes, a witness in the Whitey Bulger trial, had his dangerousness hearing rescheduled on Tuesday.
Concord District Court Judge Cathy Campbell ordered William Camuti, 69, held without bail until his next court date on Sept. 10 at 2 p.m.
During Tuesday's hearing, which Camuti did not attend, Campbell briefly discussed a question about his competence to stand trial.
Camuti's lawyer, Robert Saltzman, refused to elaborate on the competency and other questions about his client.
Camuti is also facing charges of intimidating a witness and improper disposition of a human body.
Rakes was the victim of poisoning when Camuti allegedly put cyanide in his iced coffee, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said Friday. Camuti's attempted murder charge is pending full autopsy results to determine the exact cause of death.
According to Ryan, Camuti set a trap for Rakes by meeting him at a McDonald's in Waltham on July 16 to discuss a business deal which did not actually exist.
Camuti allegedly laced the iced coffee with two teaspoons of potassium cyanide, then drove Rakes around for several hours before dumping his body in Lincoln, where it was found on July 17, Ryan said.
Rakes was a witness in the Whitey Bulger trial. The Boston Globereports that the two cases are not connected.
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Camuti ran a business called The Loan Depot in the late 1980s, and at the time of these crimes, he was living on Audubon Road in Wellesley. These details are written in a February 1994 press release stored on The Free Library.com.
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On Oct. 18, 1993, the jury acquitted then 49-year-old Camuti on two counts and convicted him on the remaining 11 counts. Camuti was sentenced on Feb. 28, 1994 to 116 months imprisonment and ordered to pay $2,528,000 in restitution.
Camuti currently lives at Musketahquid Village on Hudson Road.Sudbury Police Chief Scott Nix said steps are being taken to evict Camuti from the complex.
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