Judge Orders Hearing Into Whether Middletown Police Omitted Information in Homicide Case

Rhode Island Superior Court has ordered the Middletown Police Department to a hearing into whether they deliberately omitted information regarding the stabbing homicide that took place in March of last year.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Nugent ordered the hearing at the request of the lawyers for Zachary Lapelusa of Milford, Conn., who was charged with stabbing Antoinette Bruce.  He allegedly left her body in water off Hanging Rock Road and was later found by police near Third Beach.   Lapelusa and Bruce were co-workers at the Christmas Tree Shop.  

Lapelusa alleged that Middletown Police and a state prosecutor deliberately omitted information from a judge in securing a warrant to take a DNA sample.

The hearing will determine if the DNA can be used as evidence in the trial.