Episode 677: The Murder of Anthony LoConte

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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.

She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.

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I am absolutely obsessed with a sweet treat after dinner and my favorite sweet treat right now is my my mochi.

It's mine, not yours.

Just kidding, you can have some too.

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Hey, weirdos, I'm Alina.

I'm Ash.

And this is morbid.

It's morbid in the morning.

So hey, it's morbid in the morning.

Oh, did you just hear my jaw crack?

Yeah, your jaw needs to be taken care of.

No, I have a reckless job.

Honestly.

somebody should probably like wire it shut for a little bit

my whole job is talking and it just wouldn't work it's rough it it's like snaps a lot yeah i was just like just doing a little stretch and it was like

when i eat a bagel it's even crazier oh damn it's nuts well you have heard it but i have it's true you listener out there you have you may not have i don't know your life i don't know your life i don't know your life but i do know a candy store that you should go to in salem yeah this is and it's not an ad No.

It's just,

we like to pass on stuff to you.

We went to Salem the other day.

We got to hang out with our, with our, our twin flame, Ryan Lil Washington.

Go download Ryan's music.

Go buy Ryan's books.

Go give him a high five.

He's a lovely, lovely, magical, enchanting human being.

It's the best.

And so is his husband.

Yes.

We love them both.

We had a wonderful time in Salem.

And their friends.

Yeah, and their friends are great.

Like, it was a great, it was a great day.

We had a whole day.

And we met a lot of listeners.

So if we met you, what's up?

Yeah, well, we're in the middle.

We hope you had a great day in Salem.

We met somebody who was their first time in Salem.

I hope you had the best time.

Yeah, hell yeah.

Hell fucking yeah.

And we also met Marnie.

We met Marnie.

And Marnie is the owner of the Curly Girl Candy Shop in Salem, which we always pass by there.

It's right near like House Witch.

Right near like Essex Street.

It's like right off of Essex Street.

Yeah.

And I always, I'm like, oh, we should bop in there.

Like, I'm going to get some some candy.

And we were going to this last time because we ran into Marnie.

She introduced herself.

And we were planning 100% on going into the candy store.

But then we had kids' stuff pop up.

Yeah.

I had, I had to get to after school activities.

And we had timed it so that I could get home for that.

So I could drive them to after school stuff.

And

the traffic shifted.

And suddenly it was going to be like a two-hour drive home.

And we were like, holy shit, we got to leave.

That's one thing about Salem.

I love going to Salem so much, but like traffic, man.

From two to three, the traffic shift is nuts.

Yeah, you either have to leave there very early or very or later.

Yeah, there's this one stretch of time where you're gonna be in trouble.

Yeah, but Marnie, we will be back, and we will come.

Yeah, we buy the shit out of some of your candy shops.

Love Marnie, go to the Curly Girl candy shop because it looks so fucking cool.

And we're definitely going when we come back.

Yes, um, and bop into House Witch and get your aura red because we did that with Ryan and his husband and the two of us, And it was very fun.

Very insightful.

Very like,

yeah, very insightful.

It's definitely the best way to discuss it.

And we also stopped into Nocturne, which is one of my favorite stores.

Oh.

And we met Cody, Cody Crawley, who has, she's, you might know her on like TikTok.

I think her TikTok and like Instagram is under spirit board, board, but B-O-R-E-D.

Yep.

Her name's Cody.

She's also an author.

She wrote her debut novel was

Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch.

Amazing.

I just got it.

I'm so excited to see her.

Amazing.

So she's a great follow.

She's awesome.

So definitely if you're looking for some fun follows.

She gives you a lot of information about Salem too

on her TikTok.

She gives you like historical information, touristy information, the best kind of like little hidden gems.

That's the best.

She gives you like spooky little stories.

She's very entertaining.

She's got the vibes of Ty from Clueless.

Yes, very much.

Like a spooky tie.

Literally a spooky tie i think she's so fun so yeah it was really cool we met a lot of cool people

good vibes all around we beat it we needed a little like um

hookie day yeah a little hookie day i mean it was our day off anyway we didn't actually really play hookie from anything but no we can't

we're actually not allowed

but

with all that being said that's all that that's all the business we had right yeah it was just good business it was good business but we have um kind of a pressing case today and this case um is you you know, it hits close to home.

I had this fucking phenomenal mentor when I was in like my very early hair days when I had just started at like this main salon.

Yeah.

I had this mentor, Timmy, and he took such good care of me.

And unfortunately, his uncle was killed years and years and years ago.

And now his uncle's killer is possibly going to be up for probation, which is.

Pretty scary.

That's always not great.

Yeah, it's pretty scary too when you hear the details of this case.

So let's get into it.

This is a pressing matter.

When we get to the end, there's like some petitions going on and stuff.

Just trying to get some ears.

Yeah, we want to get some ears, some attention on this.

Timmy's family is really trying to do whatever they can to keep their loved ones killer behind bars, and I don't blame them.

Yeah.

So let's get into it.

In the spring of 1988, 19-year-old Robert Morganti was living in Brockton, which is a suburb about an hour outside of Boston.

And at the time, he was supporting himself as kind of a low-level cocaine dealer.

At the time, a lot of the product that he was selling came from Jeffrey Tessier, who was one of his runners, quote unquote, who basically helped him break up large amounts of cocaine into smaller packages, and then they would go distribute it.

Okay.

On May 10th, 1988, Robert Morganti had actually run out of cocaine.

So he called Jeffrey in order to get some more, but Jeffrey told him he, too, was dry, didn't have any.

But Jeffrey said he did have a source that he was willing to connect Morganti with in order to resupply.

Jeffrey's connection would have completely solved their problems, but a few hours later, Morganti called to say that this connection was also out of cocaine.

So, sensing an opportunity to make some quick cash and

thinking very interestingly, interesting thought pattern here, Jeffrey Tessier devised a scheme where he would, quote, trick Morganti into paying him for what Morganti would mistakenly believe was one quarter kilogram of cocaine.

Oh no.

That's a terrible fucking idea.

Yeah, that's not a good idea.

He's obviously not the first person to ever rip off a drug dealer, but it does remain unclear how or why he thought Morganti would readily accept a look-alike powder and would then distribute that look-alike powder without verifying its legitimacy at all.

Like that's never going to happen.

No.

But for whatever reason, he returned Morganti's call that evening and told him he found another hookup and that they could go to the new supplier's house that night, night, pick up the drugs for what would end up being about $10,500 at that time and what would be almost $29,000 today.

Okay.

Based on court records and just like human logic, it's pretty reasonable to assume Jeffrey had not fully thought out this plan.

No.

This was very,

this was very impulsive.

Yeah.

And he was very much operating on the fly.

So because of that, it is very plausible to believe that Anthony LeConde was just roped into all of this at the very last, very dire minute.

But either way, that night, Jeffrey Tessier, Robert Morganti, and one of their associates, Brian Madden, drove to Lacan's house.

And when they arrived, Tessier told the two men to wait in the car while he went inside to pick up the drugs, which were not drugs.

So because Anthony LeConte was ultimately killed that night, we only have Jeffrey Tessier's testimony to rely on to fill in the gaps of what happened next.

According to him, he went into Anthony's house and explained that he was at what what he was attempting to do.

And again, according to him, LeConte didn't object to playing a part in this ruse.

Jeffrey then quickly scanned the house for anything that he could pass off as fake cocaine and ultimately gathered a random collection of just household items, including an old spice container.

And he placed the hastily assembled package in a brown paper bag and went back out to the car.

Okay.

Once he was out there, he handed that package over to Morganti.

Morganti gave him the $10,500, $10,500,

fully believing that he was purchasing a kilo of cocaine rather than a bag of garbage.

And with the deal done, Morganti and Madden pulled away from the house, leaving Jeffrey there behind with Anthony LeConte, who Jeffrey said received $2,000 for his participation in the scam.

Again, Jeffrey's words.

Yeah.

Not surprisingly, a seasoned drug dealer, Robert Morganti, wasn't fooled by getting a bag of deodorant.

Yeah, that's not shocking.

And was pretty pissed that he had just paid over $10,000 for a bag of garbage.

So within five minutes, Morganti and Madden were back at Lacan's house pounding on the back door, which, by the way, he lived with his mother.

This is horrifying.

And he, this was a very last-minute thing he got roped into.

We don't know what he knew and anything like that.

We only have Jeffrey to rely on him.

So now Morganti and Madden are banging on the door

and like very fucking angry drug dealers.

I can like feel the anxiety right now.

Yeah.

so absolutely terrified by these men at the door anthony goes running out the front door because they're pounding on the back door and he attempted to get away from the situation that he got roped into last minute but according to his mother rachel the two men chased him down in the driveway and managed to force him into madden's car after beating him

What happened next is not exactly clear, but the evidence collected during the investigation does provide some insight.

According to the medical examiner, excuse me, Anthony LeConte was sitting in the passenger seat of the Monte Carlo with Madden driving and Morganti sitting in the back, right behind Anthony.

At one point during their drive, after having severely beaten him, investigators believe that Morganti shot 24-year-old LeConte in the back of his head with a 380-caliber handgun, sending a bullet through the back of his skull behind his left ear, and that then exited through his right eye.

Oh, yeah, that's awesome.

They executed him.

That is brutal.

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If you listen to this show, you know that a lot of men do a lot of questionable things.

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Based on the technician's analysis of the evidence in the car, the gun was fired less than six inches from the victim's head.

Holy shit.

It was so close that it caused burns around the edge of the wound.

And finally, it was determined based on Anthony's injuries and the trajectory of the bullet that the gunshot could have only been fired from the back seat, where Morganti was believed to have been sitting.

A A little past 11 p.m.

that night, Brockton resident Michael Geiller looked out the window of his Howard Street residence and saw a blue Monte Carlo slow to a stop across from his home where it sat briefly before pulling away.

After the car left, he saw what he described as what looked like a trash bag sitting on the side of the road.

And assuming that the driver had just dumped trash, he went back to what he was doing, didn't really think anything about it, until a short time later, he heard screams coming from outside.

By that time, a passing driver had also seen what they thought was an object on the side of the road, but they stopped to investigate.

And that's when they found Anthony LeConte unconscious and badly bleeding.

They just dumped him on the side of the road.

And he was only unconscious.

He had not died yet.

Oh my God.

So Gaylor called for an ambulance and emergency responders arrived a few minutes later.

At first, they couldn't tell because he was so badly beaten and, you know, you're unrecognizable after that kind of gunshot wound.

emergency responders believed that he actually anthony had been the victim of a hit and run accident holy shit since he was covered in blood and the exit wound above his eye wasn't recognizable i think probably because due to swelling he was still actually breathing and did have a weak pulse but a short time later he did pass away at the hospital And later that day, when the autopsy was conducted, that's when they discovered the bullet wound over his eye and the back of his head.

And his death at that point was obviously deemed a homicide.

This was devastating to his family.

Anthony LeConte was born in December of 1963 to Coast Guardsman Albie.

Albie.

And line worker and former model, Rachel LeConte.

They are a beautiful couple.

They're

my friend Timmy's grandparents.

And he sent all these old pictures of them on like their wedding day and everything.

They had all these children together.

They're a beautiful family.

Anthony was the fourth of their fifth children, and he was absolutely adored by all of his siblings and even his extended family growing up he loved to watch batman and robin with his brother alan he loved to dress up and they would pretend to fly around the house like superheroes him and his sister marie would do that and he also loved the cartoon uh go speed racer go he loved it race cars motorcycles anything like that He and his brother Alan would go to concerts all the time.

Alan said they went to AC DC, Fog Hat, Blue Oyster Cult.

Oh my God.

And they would sneak up to the front rows together whenever they could.

I love that.

And they had a great time together.

And music definitely played a big part in the whole family's lives.

All of Anthony's siblings remember dancing around with him.

They remember just spending days hanging out in their rooms listening to new records.

He gave one of his sisters a cassette or like a 45 of

Prince's Purple Reign.

Oh my God.

And she still has it to this day.

She won't part with it.

Oh, of course.

But one thing that every family member recalls, and I just think this is such a sweet memory, the family went on a cruise to the Bahamas together, and Tony was only about seven or eight at the time.

But he got up on stage on the cruise, and they all said that he performed Frank Sinatra's You Make Me Feel So Young with the ship's band.

Shut up.

Just like got up there and sang for everybody.

That's amazing.

And the crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Of course they will.

And everybody has that memory.

Oh, I love that.

It's really sweet.

Anthony's sister Susan told us, what I want people to know about Anthony was that he was a kind and loving brother who didn't have much but shared what he did have.

He would always put others before himself.

He was an advocate or big brother to many kids in the neighborhood.

He always loved the holidays.

He would go to the neighbors' houses and celebrate their traditions and eat with them.

He loved playing with the children and would stick up for others that were being bullied.

Just the other day, while getting an oil change, a man came up to me and asked me if I was a locant.

He told me the story of him being bullied and how Anthony stepped in and told the other kids to leave him alone and they never bullied him again.

So few people are like that yeah so to like lose somebody that's like that in such a horrific way is like heartbreaking devastating tragic yeah you you don't find people like that no to just go out of their way yeah and probably for somebody he like knew yeah like just like handu or just whatever like a lot of people won't stick up for people no they won't put their own nose you know like it's a lot of people will just kind of walk away and let somebody else deal with it but look at how significant it is when you actually do go out of your way and stick up for somebody.

That man went up to his sister however many years later, like 40 years later and still remembered.

That's the thing.

People will remember just like the smallest acts of kindness that you will do or just going out of your way to like make them happy or make something better for them.

And people remember the other way.

Oh, absolutely.

And which way would you rather be known for?

Being the bully and being the person that made someone's life awful?

No,

being the person that stepped in and like made things better.

And it's easy.

It's not

easy.

It doesn't take too much.

Yeah.

You know, just do it.

But everybody has fond memories of Anthony.

Sounds like it.

His niece, Amy, also has the fond memories, especially about going to visit him while he lived with her grandmother when she was young.

She said, my uncle Tony, he had old Hollywood movie star looks.

I was just about to say he is.

He is incredibly handsome.

He does.

He actually,

did you meet Timmy when I was working at the salon?

I think I briefly met him.

I'm pretty sure.

Timmy looks like his uncle.

I was going to say they are very similar.

Timmy's very like him.

Yeah, Timmy's very Hollywood star-like.

Very like striking.

Very striking.

Yeah, and he looks like he could be in one of those cool old movies.

Like you could see him in like a full suit.

Yes, absolutely.

Like dapper dapper.

Or like driving a fast car.

Yeah.

You know?

She said he was absolutely stunning.

Agreed.

Yeah.

He was over six feet tall with dark hair and dark eyes.

The ladies loved him, but he only had eyes for a couple ladies.

And the number one lady was his mom.

Oh, my God.

He was a mama's boy, a fearless brother, and the coolest uncle any little girl could ever dream of.

She also remembered, of course, how devastating the loss of her uncle was for not only herself, but especially for his mom, Amy's grandmother.

She said, they had the most beautiful relationship.

She broke when he was assassinated.

I lost them both when he was murdered.

She just got so quiet and so sad.

I remember when I was going to give birth to my firstborn son, I came to Nanny and I asked her if I could name him Anthony.

And she said she didn't think that was a good idea because it wasn't a good name for her son.

So did I think it would be a good idea for him?

Like she was so, not that she didn't love the name or anything.

No, she was like worried

about something.

Yeah.

Oh, that breaks my heart.

It does.

She's beautiful as well.

Yes.

Nanny.

Nanny.

Oh, Nanny's wedding picture.

Nanny was a star.

Yeah.

And Nanny and Albie.

Yes.

Damn.

Gorge couple.

What a couple.

Gorge couple.

I was like, wow.

Yeah.

Timmy, your family.

Timmy, your family.

Holy shit.

But on a more serious note, going back to the night of the murder, according to court documents, sometime around midnight, Robert Morganti called his friend Travis Merritt and told him that he had, quote, gotten ripped off, something went wrong, and he had shot somebody.

So Travis agreed to help his friend, and a short time later, Robert Morganti showed up to his apartment with blood still all over his face and all over his clothing.

My God.

During their conversation, Morganti repeated the story of what happened earlier that night, saying he didn't know the identity of the man that he'd shot, only that he thought he was involved in ripping him off for $10,500.

And Morganti told Travis he had thrown the gun out of the car somewhere along Harrison Boulevard on his way back to the apartment.

And he said his only priority in that moment was finding Jeffrey Tessier and getting his money back, which is like, your priorities are fucked up.

You just killed a man.

You took a man's life.

A short time later, the two men went to the home of another acquaintance, Gary Gammel, where they believed they'd find Jeffrey.

At the house, Morganti apparently told Gamel, I just want my money.

I killed the wrong person.

Holy shit.

So Anthony LeConte was just wrapped up in all of this.

I just killed the wrong person.

In a case of mistaken identity.

It very much seems like Morganti thought he was going after Jeffrey or thought he was going after this like big deal cocaine dealer.

And that was not Anthony.

Holy shit.

No.

That's horrifying.

And he knew it.

He knew how badly he had fucked up that he just killed somebody who wasn't involved in all of this.

Wow.

So as the men were talking, Jeffrey pulled up outside and Morganti actually moved toward the door to confront him, but was stopped by Gammel, who insisted that he would go out and get the money back.

I'm sure he was like, you've gotten yourself in enough shit today.

A few minutes later, Gammel returned and handed Morganti $7,500,

which obviously he noted was a few thousand dollars short, but he accepted it at that point.

probably just ready to be done with the whole ordeal.

Yeah.

And they left Gammel's house in a cab and the cab then dropped Morganti at the home of another associate, Joseph Valente.

Morganti then explained to Valente that he had been ripped off and had shot and killed one of the men he thought was responsible, but that he had killed the wrong man.

And now he needed help in getting in contact with an associate in California because he was planning to flee the state.

Wow.

Which means he fully knew that he was in a whole bunch of shit.

100%.

He had the full wherewithal to know that he needed to get the fuck out of Dodge because what he did was wrong.

Yeah.

And he was going to face some kind of trouble for it.

Yeah.

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Meow.

So while he was tracking down Jeffrey Tessier to get his missing money, Brian Madden was having a crisis of his own.

Madden, remember, was driving the car that night.

He hadn't been necessarily responsible for Anthony LeConte's murder and obviously didn't know it was going to happen.

It happened very quickly.

But like I said, he had been driving the car car when Anthony was shot.

And he also helped with dumping Anthony's body on the side of the road.

He's an accomplice to murder.

Yeah.

So he's freaking out.

And he calls his brother Mark Madden a little after midnight that night and briefly explained what happened and asked Mark if he could come over.

After hearing the story, Mark did the right thing and encouraged his brother to report the shooting to the police, which Brian did end up doing shortly after

hanging up with Mark.

When Mark arrived to his brother's apartment, he saw the Monte Carlo parked out front and could still see a large amount of blood in the front seat of the car.

Inside, Brian was already speaking with detectives who had come to the apartment.

A short time after placing that call, state and local investigators arrived at Brian Madden's apartment and they started processing the car for evidence, noting that there was a, quote, great deal of blood on the front passenger seat.

They also collected several blood-covered CDs from the front seat and an old spice container, which remember was used to rip off Morganti.

Yeah.

Inside the apartment, investigators also collected several more blood-spattered CDs from Brian Madden's kitchen and subsequent testing of the blood found in the car on the floor mats and the blood on the CDs in the kitchen, all a match for Anthony LeConche.

No surprise there.

Wow.

During their investigation with Brian Madden and processing the evidence collected from the car, investigators with Brockton and Massachusetts State Police established that Brian Madden had been driving the car at the time of the shooting.

And forensic testing recreations of the shooting confirmed: quote, it would have been difficult to have fired a shot from the driver's seat at the angle indicated by the entrance and exit wounds.

So they were able to rule him out as the shooter.

Okay.

And like I said, the evidence did indicate that the shot had been fired from the back seat where we know Robert Morganti was sitting, making him the primary suspect for the murder.

Based on the statements taken from Brian Madden, Jeffrey,

Tessier, excuse me, and Joseph Valente, a warrant was issued for Robert Morganti's arrest on the afternoon of May 11th, 1988, for the murder of Anthony Locant.

But the problem was, at that point, by the time investigators managed to put all the pieces together, Morganti had already fled the state.

He was gone.

In the years that followed, investigators followed leads and tips from the public that brought them to Florida, Michigan, and New York in search of Robert Morganti.

But it would be more than a decade before he was ultimately captured and put on trial for Anthony Locant's murder.

Damn.

Yes.

More than a decade.

In the early morning hours of March 16th, 2000, now the year 2000, this all started, remember, in 1988.

Now, March 16th, 2000, a California highway patrol officer stopped a car, stopped a driver for speeding along Highway 132 in Modesto.

The driver identified himself as Roderick Grenage, a resident of Stanis-Laos County, and he acknowledged to the officer that he had been drinking.

Oh.

The officer obviously asked the man to step out of the vehicle and immediately placed him under arrest for DUI.

And during a routine search of the vehicle, the CHP officer also discovered about a half pound of marijuana in Grenage's vehicle, as well as a box that quote unquote contained marijuana residue.

So he contacted the county drug enforcement agency, and obviously the vehicle was impounded.

The drug evidence found in this man's vehicle was obviously enough for law enforcement agents to get a warrant for his home now, where they found 70 pounds of marijuana.

Jesus.

That's a whole shit ton of marijuana, all of which had been divided into smaller packages, clearly for sale.

Wow.

So we're not, we're not evolving here.

No.

$21,000 in cash, which was wrapped in bed sheets as well, was found in the apartment.

And the evidence strongly indicated that this man was probably a drug dealer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Lieutenant Raoud de Leon told reporters, it was obvious this guy was supporting himself by selling marijuana.

But what was even more unusual and more unexpected was that, along with the drugs and the money, investigators also found multiple forms of identification, all with different names, indicating that this Broderick Grenage probably wasn't who he claimed to be.

That's spooky.

Among the various forms of identification found in the home was one for John Sam Brown.

another name entirely.

And John Sam Brown was from Almeda County.

So investigators in Modesto called their counterparts in Almeida and learned that John Sam Brown had been arrested and convicted on a previous charge and was currently on probation.

Oh.

In the meantime, another detective ran through Roderick's fingerprints.

They ran them through the nationwide database and got a hit not for Roderick, but for Robert Morganti,

who, as we know, had a warrant out in Brockton, Massachusetts for the murder of Anthony LeConte in 1988.

Yep.

On March 17th, authorities in California called the state police in Massachusetts and let them them know that they had arrested their suspect that many years later.

And the following day, a detective from the state police boarded the first plane for Modesto.

After a dozen years of waiting and hoping, the news of Morganti's arrest obviously came as a surprise, but a relief to Anthony's family.

Lacant's brother Alan told reporters, I never gave up hope.

I was always hoping he would be found.

That must have been unreal.

The relief they must have felt.

And then like in hand with the relief, also just now we're going to have to go through a whole trial, and this is all going to get brought back up again.

All the emotions that you've been dealing with for years and years and years are like right at their root again.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, while the family waited on word from local authorities regarding Morganti's extradition to Massachusetts, the suspect was held on $1 million bail on the drug charges.

When Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Leonard Koppenrath finally sat down with Morganti the following day, he continued to refer to himself as Roger Ganage and insisted that he was not from Brockton, but that he had come to California from New York.

WTF.

He's like, what's Brockton even?

What even is that?

But when the detective filled out the Miranda form using the suspect's real name, Morganti realized he had been found out and just looked at him and said, Now what?

Damn.

So that is so casual.

So casual.

Holy shit.

Now what?

Now you're going to face trial for murder.

So how's that?

Throughout their interview, Robert Morganti was evasive and really never offered a confession.

But that said, at one point, he was allowed to make a phone call to his son.

It was the boy's birthday.

And when his son's mother asked what she should tell their son, Morganti said, she should explain to their son that daddy did a bad thing.

Wow.

So while he didn't confess, he did kind of.

At various points, he also wondered out loud whether it was wise for him to speak to two detectives on the record, but he had already agreed to speak with them without an attorney and he never directly recanted that approval or directly asked for an attorney.

Yeah.

So if you don't ask directly, they're not going to give you one.

No.

You got to ask.

You got to ask.

Morganti told the detectives that he hadn't seen or spoken to anybody from Brockton since he left in 1988, including his family.

And although he knew many of the people involved in the LowComp murder case, he denied being responsible for Anthony's death.

It wasn't him.

No, he said.

He said.

He said.

I'm like, let's make that clear.

Rather than press for a confession, though, Kapenroth began offering various scenarios in which Morganti might have found himself in that ultimately led to Anthony's death, but that tactic failed to elicit a confession still.

A few days later, Robert Morganti was extradited back to Massachusetts to finally stand trial for the murder.

Ultimately, he and Anthony's family would have to wait more than three years before the case was finally heard.

But finally, in the summer of 2003, his trial did begin in Brockton Superior Court.

At that time, he was charged with one count of first-degree murder with special circumstances attached for what the prosecutor described as deliberate premeditation and the extreme atrocity or cruelty, which, yeah, I would say so.

You shoot somebody in the back of the head after beating them.

Yeah, that is that is extreme cruelty.

Yeah, and banging down their mother's door.

Yeah, I'd say so.

Over the course of the trial, the jury was shown a large number of photographs of Anthony's body, which his sister Marie described as unrecognizable after Morganti had beaten him, shot him, and left him for dead on the side of the road.

That's so sad.

They also, the jury also viewed Madden's Monte Carlo and were shown a recreation of the shooting to see where the parties were sitting when it occurred.

Other evidence presented in court included the fingerprint evidence taken from the car on the night of the murder, as well as the fingerprint evidence that was collected when Morganti was arrested in Modesto and

when they were able to confirm his identity.

Oh, okay.

And, you know, all that.

Yeah.

So by far the most compelling aspect of of the trial was the testimony from various individuals who had contact with Robert Morganti and Anthony LeConte on the night of the shooting.

That included testimony from Travis Merritt, who told the jury that he had seen Robert Morganti with the same caliber gun that was used in the shooting.

and Jeffrey Tessier, who claimed that he also had seen Morganti with the same caliber of weapon, in fact, on the day of the shooting.

Oh.

So that's something.

Yeah.

Similarly, Joseph Valente testified that Morgante had come to him in needed his help to flee to California.

There was also a large number of witnesses who testified they heard Morganti say he had killed somebody.

Oh, most damning, however, was Brian Madden, who testified that he had been driving the car on the night of the shooting and in the courtroom identified Robert Morganti as the shooter.

Oh shit!

Yeah, so he, this piles and piles of evidence,

a lot of evidence.

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On June 13th, 2003, after a brief deliberation, the jury returned a verdict finding Robert Branganti guilty for the murder of Anthony Loconte.

Following his conviction, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

And when the sentence was passed, Anthony's father, LB, openly wept in the courtroom, relieved that his son had finally received justice after more than a decade, over a decade.

But unfortunately, that relief would not last.

In 2009, Robert Morganti's lawyer, Donald Harwood, filed an appeal on Morganti's behalf, alleging, among other things, that investigators had violated his rights, one, by admitting into evidence statements that were given more than six hours after his arrest, and two, not stopping the interview after Morganti suggested he should contact a lawyer.

It doesn't work like that.

Yeah, you gotta.

Yeah, and I'll explain that.

With regard to the first point, the statements made more than six hours after his arrest that were entered into evidence.

Harwood is referring to what's known as the safe harbor rule, which provides, quote, that in the absence of exceptional circumstances, a statement made by a defendant more than six hours after his arrest shall not be admitted into evidence unless the defendant waives his right to a prompt arraignment.

This provision was established to prevent law enforcement officials from delaying interviews for long periods of time to try to get a confession.

But in this case, the delay was a result of Sergeant Koppenroth having to travel across the country.

Yeah.

And even under those circumstances, the court found that the safe harbor rule had not been violated in this case.

So that's good.

As for the second claim that his request for a lawyer had been denied, the court also ruled against Murganti.

In their summary opinion, the justices noted noted that to invoke the right to counsel, the suspect must unambiguously request counsel and must articulate his desire to have counsel present sufficiently, clearly, that a reasonable police officer in the circumstances would understand the statement to be a request for an attorney.

You can't say like, maybe I should have a lawyer.

Or should I talk to you guys?

Should I talk to you guys?

Maybe I shouldn't talk to you guys.

It has to be like, I want a lawyer and I'm not speaking until I have one.

Yeah.

Black and white.

Boom.

You can't just feel it.

You can't speak in hypotheticals.

Yeah, you got to be clear.

So in Morganti's case, the justices concluded that it was perfectly reasonable for the interviewing officers to

assume that he wasn't requesting an attorney, quote, thinking out loud that he might need a lawyer and might want to stop questioning until he spoke to a lawyer, which is not a sufficient invocation of his rights.

No, no.

So those attempts failed.

Several years later, in late 2013, he appealed a second time, this time arguing that his rights had been violated during the jury selection process when the courtroom was was briefly cleared of public spectators.

The Sixth Amendment of the U.S.

Constitution guarantees, as we know, a right to a speedy and public trial, which Burganti was now arguing had been denied when the courtroom was briefly cleared.

In their finding, the court determined that, quote, during jury impanelment, the court officers closed the courtroom to all members of the public, as was custom practice at that time in court, and the defendant did not object to the courtroom closure.

So they also concluded that, quote, all three attorneys were aware of their client's Sixth Amendment Amendment right to a public trial, yet none of them objected until 2007 when the issue began to emerge in cases tried outside of Plymouth County.

So they saw it starting to come up with their

places.

So the justices upheld the conviction on the grounds that the defendant had not sustained his burden of establishing his claim.

With those two appeals or three appeals denied at that point, it appeared that Robert Morganti would indeed be spending the rest of his life in jail.

However, just about a month or so ago, in April of 2025, the Locant family's world was completely upended when Anthony's now 92-year-old father received a letter from the Massachusetts Parole Board indicating that due to a recent state Supreme Court ruling, Robert Morganti could become eligible for parole in the very near future.

And we've come across this before.

The ruling in question was the outcome of Commonwealth versus Mattis, a January 2024 state Supreme Court ruling concluding that life sentences without the possibility of parole for offenders between 18 and 20 years old accounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

We've talked about that before.

Yeah.

So now, we've talked about it in other states.

Now it's happening in Massachusetts.

And now the state of Massachusetts has started evaluating cases where the offenders were between those ages at the time that the crimes were committed and considering certain inmates for parole.

In her press release following the ruling, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said the justice system should give young people the opportunity to turn their lives around and fulfill their potential.

Which, yeah, sure.

Yeah.

In certain cases, that's absolutely valid.

Robert Morganti was 19 years old when he killed Anthony LeConte, and then he was able to live for another 12 more years on the run and didn't turn his life around.

I think that's

the difference here.

That's because I'm all for taking a look at cases and seeing if some

changes have happened.

Yeah, take a look.

All that stuff for sure.

That's the whole point of imprisonment.

That's what we say.

It's supposed to be that, like,

you know, you, the rehabilitation to become a productive member of society.

Right.

But you got to look at each one.

It's a case by case.

It's a case by case because some of them are just not going to fit that mold.

No.

And I don't think, I don't think he does.

Because during the time.

that he was on the run, he had warrants, multiple warrants in other states.

He was still selling large amounts of drugs.

Well, when he got arrested for a DUI, I was just going to say.

He can kill someone.

I literally go, I wrote in my notes, he's arrested for DUI, still endangering the lives of it.

That's endangering people.

He had the opportunity to turn his life around.

Yeah.

And he hadn't.

And on top of that, Marie LeConte said, he showed no remorse when he was arrested.

And

he was an adult.

He was in his 30s when he was arrested.

He never reached out to us.

It would have given us some healing if he had.

So that all matters.

Yeah, absolutely.

And while the state may see the ruling as extending young offenders the opportunity to turn their lives around, the LeConte family, just in this case, does not agree when it comes to Robert Morganti.

Yeah.

Anthony's younger sister, Marie, told a reporter for The Enterprise, my heart breaks for my father.

It breaks for us all.

I'm so angry.

We don't want to go through this again.

I don't blame them.

And she told us, losing Anthony shattered our hearts.

His death didn't just affect us.

It changed us.

It's something we carry every day, a pain that does not fade.

We miss his voice, his laughter, his energy, and the way he made us all feel safe and loved.

Anthony LeConte was more than just a brother or a son.

He was a light in our lives.

And though that light was taken from us far too soon, its warmth remains.

We love you forever, Anthony.

You are missed beyond words.

That just gave me so many chills and I got a giant bump of cry in my throat.

I know.

I can't imagine losing someone that

way and someone like Anthony.

No, I can't.

Like, I really can't.

Like,

I feel for this family so much.

He just seemed like such a, like, I, there were so, there were countless stories that Tim was able to share from all his family members.

And I could never share them all.

We would, it would take like years and years because there were so many great stories of who he was.

And he, and a great thing to point out is he got to live 24 years.

He, Robert Morganti hasn't even been in jail as long as, as, as Anthony LeConte got to live.

Yeah.

Like

come on.

Yeah.

And again.

He had the opportunity to turn his life around and he didn't.

Well, that's, yeah.

He was, I think he was 34 by the time he got arrested.

And for them to have to go through all this again and to open up all the wounds, to reopen everything.

To have that relief and then have it kind of ripped off before it was able to even he scab over, you know, like that kind of pain.

I can't even imagine.

I can't die.

And for his father to be 92 having to deal with this.

92 in poor health.

Like just finally got to see justice and then it got reverse.

It could possibly be reversed.

Yeah.

It's like, that's, I can't.

It's tough.

Very upsetting.

I feel for what they're going through.

Very complex and very upsetting.

Yeah.

So as of now, Morganti is one of 209 inmates in Massachusetts who do possibly have a chance at parole.

Oh, wow.

Though members of the Locant family are committed to doing whatever they can to make this not happen, to prevent this from happening.

The family has picketed at the state house and they are doing whatever they can to bring awareness to what's going on with Anthony's case.

They also currently have a petition on change.org.

There's almost 150 signatures.

If you feel so inclined to get more, we could definitely get them some more.

Yeah.

You guys guys go fucking crazy over petitions.

Yeah, you guys really bang it out with petitions.

Sign this petition if you feel so inclined.

We're going to include it in the show notes and post on social.

Yeah.

And just do what you can, you know?

I always think like if the, if the victim's family is this committed to it, that's who I take my cues from.

That's who I stand with.

Yeah, that's who I take my cues from.

Absolutely.

As of now, the Massachusetts Parole Board has yet to schedule a hearing for Robert Morganti, but one is expected to be announced in the coming months.

So let's get those signatures going before that happens because those signatures make a difference.

This family going and picketing outside the state house makes a difference.

And the fact that they are still

working this hard for Anthony tells you who Anthony was and how much they care.

You know, like it should, like for them to be still, I mean, again, his father's 92 years old.

Right.

Like, come on.

Yeah.

And his siblings, his siblings all have their own children.

Their children are having their own children they are still fighting for their brother still fighting for this yeah

damn it's just it's a heartbreaking case i just want to hug the lacant family i want to hug all of them i know and just the fact that morganti himself at one point allegedly said like i killed the wrong guy yeah this was all a mistake.

This all should have never happened.

Yeah.

It never should have happened.

And it's gut-wrenching that this family's still dealing with something that just never should have happened in the first place.

Absolutely.

So we'll share that in the show notes.

And with that being said, thank you for listening.

We hope you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird.

But not so weird that you don't go rock that petitions world.

Rock it.

Sign it.

Put your Herbie Hancock

on the petition.

On the petition.

On the petition.

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