Double-murder suspect says he killed twice before and got away with it

Jan. 26--A murder suspect in the chilling slayings of a Deerfield Beach couple has confessed to killing twice before -- and getting away with it.

He's a 60-year-old house painter from Lake Worth, and he claims a trail of death spanning two decades and three states.

Rosario "Ross" Melici admitted killing Barbara and Phillip Russo, 78 and 88, found bound and stabbed to death in their Deerfield Beach condo in November, court records show.

As a Broward sheriff's detective interrogated him in that case, the records show, Melici divulged other secrets just as dark and deadly.

Melici told Broward detectives he killed a 67-year-old New Jersey woman, found smothered with a plastic bag over her head 22 years ago. He then went further, admitting that two years later in New York, he shot his accomplice in the New Jersey woman's murder.

Authorities in New Jersey are now revisiting the unsolved murder of the woman. Melici already had been a suspect in the other killing he just admitted to Broward investigators, but prosecutors years ago dropped the murder charge against him in that case.

If Melici's confessions are to be believed, he killed people he knew -- a man he reportedly called his best friend and a distant relative -- in greedy moments of opportunity. Each killing was plotted with accomplices, Melici told a homicide detective.

Melici is behind bars in Broward County jail on two counts of premeditated murder in the Russos' deaths.

He has not been charged in any of the out-of-state killings that he reportedly described to BrowardJohn Curcio. His attorney, Tom Weiss, who is court-appointed and has an office in West Palm Beach, declined comment.

What follows are the tales of murder he shared with Curcio in a Nov. 8 interview, as detailed in a search warrant filed in Broward Circuit Court.

The killing of a condo manager

Melici said he and an accomplice successfully carried out a murder-for-hire in January 1992 when they suffocated Doris McGarry, a condominium association office manager in New Jersey, the warrant said.

McGarry was responsible for overseeing the affairs of an estate inheritance, and the heir, who had been in a dispute with her, wanted McGarry dead. The heir turned to her own husband, Christopher Lavary, and Melici to get the job done.

Melici and Lavary went to McGarry's Marlton, N.J., apartment, where Christopher Lavary punched and strangled her while Melici bound her hands and feet with a cord, Melici said, according to the warrant.

Evesham Township police in New Jersey found McGarry with a plastic shopping bag over her head on Jan. 27, 1992. A broken wristwatch and her emptied purse were found on a kitchen table nearby. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide and said McGarry received injuries to her head and face, suffered broken ribs and was ultimately asphyxiated.

The Lavarys' last listed address was in New Jersey, and their relatives could not be reached for comment despite attempts by phone.

It was unclear whether Lavary's wife is alive despite attempts to verify that. Neither a check with the Monmouth County Medical Examiner's Office in New Jersey, nor a listing of public records, turned up such information.

Joel Bewley, a spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey, acknowledged last week McGarry's homicide remained an active investigation.

"The only thing I can say about the Doris McGarry homicide is that it's still an open case and it is still being investigated," he said. "I'm unable to give you the names of any potential suspects or confirm whether or not Rosario [Melici] that you mentioned is a suspect in that.

"Our position is we don't discuss a case until an arrest is made," Bewley said.

Lt. Joseph Friel, of Evesham Township Police, also did not provide details about the 1992 murder but said the McGarry homicide is no longer a cold case.

Investigators are checking whether a man's DNA that was found beneath McGarry's fingernails decades ago points to Melici and corroborates his story, the warrant said.

Lavary was not charged in connection with McGarry's killing.

Shot in the head

Two years after McGarry's slaying, Melici lured Lavary into the woods in Staten Island, where he shot him in the head, Melici told the detective. Again, Melici said, Lavary's wife asked for his help; she wanted her 51-year-old husband dead to collect on an insurance policy, Melici said.

Even though Melici now has confessed to gunning down Christopher Lavary -- described as his "best friend" in a Staten Island Advance newspaper report -- he denied it when New York prosecutors dismissed the murder charge in 1997.

He spent 20 months in prison before the murder charge was dropped. What was the forensic evidence on his side? The presence of tiny fly eggs on Lavary's decomposing body. Pathologists determined that he could not have been slain when the witness said he was, because those fly eggs would have matured to maggots by then.

As Melici walked out of the courtroom a free man on Feb. 19, 1997, he told a Staten Island Advance reporter: "I'm glad it's over. There's been a lot of stress in the family. I went from Brooklyn House [of Detention] to Rikers Island and was shipped back and forth. It was real hard. Going back and forth was my life."

A spokesman for the Richmond County Office of the District Attorney declined to comment on the case, which he said remained sealed.

The slaying of a couple

Over the years, Melici eventually made his way to South Florida and settled in Lake Worth. Last fall, he went to the Russos' home unannounced in the Palms of Deer Creek development and offered to paint the couple's apartment free of charge.

Melici was the ex-husband of Philip Russo's niece, and he carried out the Russo murders with help from accomplice Michael A. Marotta, 38, authorities said.

Melici's intentions were malicious, authorities said, and when he returned, along with Marotta, they set out to rob the couple of their gold jewelry, stabbing them to death before leaving with the loot.

Hours after trying to reach her parents by phone, Patricia Williams found her father dead in a pool of blood in a guest bedroom and called 911. Deputies found her mother, Barbara Russo, dead in a bedroom with a bag over her head.

"Both victims appeared to be bound and had items over their heads and mouths," the search warrant said.

A roll of blue painter's tape, which appeared to be used to tie up the couple, was found near their bodies.

Melici's DNA matched the DNA found on that roll of tape, the Sheriff's Office said. Both Melici and Marotta admitted to participating in the double murder, authorities said.

Marotta also faces murder charges in the slaying of the couple.

<p>After confessing to those slayings, Melici went on to incriminate himself in the murders from the 1990s, Detective Curcio wrote in the search warrant.

In an interview Thursday, Curcio declined to comment on specifics about the case, but said he was happy he could assist out-of-state law enforcement agencies with information about their cases.

"We are all police officers; we just have different jurisdictions. But we want to help each other out on any case," he said.

Last week, two months after the Russos were slain, the couple's front door still displayed bright-orange stickers that cautioned about biohazardous chemicals, the remnants of a crime scene.

From a window with drawn curtains, the white kitchen cabinets could be seen with a layer of gray where dusting for fingerprints and other evidence appeared to have been conducted. The neon signs on the door are "too much of a reminder" of their gruesome deaths, a neighbor said.

"They were both as sweet as can be," said Julie Brewster, who lives next door.

Not long after the Russos' deaths, Brewster had run out of milk and caught herself getting ready to ask Barbara Russo for some.

"And then I stopped," she said. "All of a sudden I realized she was gone."

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

[email protected], 954-356-4543 or Twitter @epesantes

Time of deaths

Jan. 27, 1992: Doris McGarry, a 67-year-old woman, is found dead -- with a plastic bag over her head -- on her living-room floor inside her Marlton, N.J., apartment. A medical examiner determines she was asphyxiated.

1994: Christopher Lavary's body is found in Staten Island, N.Y. He was shot to death, officials said.

Nov. 4, 2013: Phillip and Barbara Russo, 88 and 78, are found bound and stabbed to death inside their Deerfield Beach condo. Barbara Russo was found dead with a bag over her head, a sheriff's search warrant said.

Days later: Rosario Melici, 60, of Lake Worth, is one of two suspects arrested on murder charges in the Russos' deaths. Melici tells a sheriff's detective that he also killed McGarry and Lavary in the 1990s, the sheriff's warrant said.

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