A man found guilty of the shotgun slaying of another man in Nobleboro 41 years ago is serving a year’s sentence after pleading no contest to weapons charges Jan. 13, according to the Sun Journal.
Frank Cugliata, 62, of Porter, was convicted in 1975 of the August 1974 murder of 22-year-old Vincent Serra in Nobleboro.
In his recent brush with the law, Cugliata’s parole officer found three guns at the residence Cugliata shared with his son in June 2014, the Sun Journal reported Jan. 15.
Under Maine law, people convicted of crimes punishable by a year or more – such as murder – are prohibited from owning, possessing, or having under their control a firearm unless they obtain a permit to do so.
Cugliata, who was paroled from his life sentence in 1985, was sentenced to a year in jail after entering his no contest plea in Oxford County Superior Court, according to the Sun Journal.
The Maine Parole Board will schedule a hearing later this year to determine whether Cugliata’s new criminal conduct breached the conditions of his release, and if so, how much additional time he will serve for the violation, according to the Sun Journal.
According to The Lincoln County News archives, Serra pooled money with a friend to buy a 10-pound brick of hash on Aug. 14, 1974.
Serra told his friend he was going to make the buy with two other friends at a location about 90 minutes from Medford, Mass.
Serra lived in Medford and was a student at Northeastern University at the time of his death.
The next morning, Aug. 15, 1974 a passing trucker discovered Serra’s body in the ditch along Route 1 in Nobleboro, about ¾-mile north of the road’s intersection with Back Meadow Road. Serra had been shot three or four times with a shotgun and three times with a 9mm pistol or rifle.
A separate truck driver witnessed what he thought was night hunting at around 1 a.m. that morning along the same part of Route 1, seeing two silhouettes near a parked vehicle along that stretch of road and four flashes in rapid succession.
The driver, southbound, was passed a minute or two later by another vehicle and wrote down what was determined to be Cugliata’s Massachusetts license plate number.
A week later, police found a note in Serra’s handwriting in Serra’s car, which said he had left the night of Aug. 14, 1974 with Cugliata, then 22 and of Malden, Mass., and John Moraites, then 20.
The full text of the note, though not entirely admitted into evidence in the trial, read “Split with John Meraides [or Miraides] and Frank Cogliata at 9:00 PM 14th of August. In case of no return check them for responsibility carrying $2000.00,” according to a 1977 denial of the two men’s appeals accessed through www.justia.com.
Both Cugliata and Moraites were arrested Aug. 26, 1974.
Cugliata denied being in Maine the night of the murder. Moraites said he and Cugliata had been playing rummy and listening to records that night.
Cugliata and Moraites were both convicted of Serra’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment the following March. The jury took just 3½ hours to deliberate.
