she wasn't very nice to joey...sleeping around on him and it was made public too!

Posted on Tue, Oct. 28, 2003

Rinick says he did not kill man
The convicted drug dealer testified in his defense. He is accused of murder in the death of a reputed dealer.
By George Anastasia
Inquirer Staff Writer
South Philadelphia wannabe wiseguy Billy Rinick told a jury yesterday that he had nothing to do with the murder of Adam Finelli, a reputed drug dealer found shot to death behind the wheel of his Cadillac SUV in the early morning of Oct. 31, 2001.

But Rinick, who took the witness stand in his defense during the second week of the high-profile murder trial, sent the courtroom buzzing when he dropped an underworld bombshell that had nothing to do with the Finelli murder and sounded more like part of a script from an episode of The Sopranos.

The day before the murder, Rinick said, he drove Deborah Merlino, the wife of jailed mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, to a women's health clinic in Maryland, where she had an abortion.

"She was cheating on her husband with a guy from New York, a football player," Rinick said. "She had gotten pregnant... . She didn't want South Philadelphia to know."

Rinick blurted out those details after Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron questioned him about a pair of sneakers he was wearing in a surveillance photograph taken in Maryland.

After the slaying, police recovered a sneaker that prosecution witness Michael Focoso said Rinick was wearing on the night of the shooting. Rinick denied that the sneaker in the photo matched that sneaker and testified about the trip to Maryland.

Rinick, who was convicted earlier this year of cocaine trafficking, was the target of an investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Drug Task Force when the surveillance photo was taken.

Agents apparently had tailed him from Merlino's home in South Philadelphia to Maryland that morning, taken photographs, and followed the couple as they drove back to Philadelphia.

Neither Deborah Merlino nor her lawyer could be reached for comment yesterday.

Deborah Merlino had testified for the prosecution earlier in the trial. She told the jury that $86,000 in cash found in a shopping bag in the back of her bedroom closet during a Dec. 6, 2001, drug raid at her home belonged to Rinick.

Yesterday, Rinick said the money was Merlino's but acknowledged that he had told investigators at the time that the money was his.

"I felt bad because her house was being raided because of me," he said.

During the early-morning raid, investigators found Rinick hiding in his underwear under a bed.

Rinick testified yesterday that he was not hiding, but that he was reaching under the bed for his prosthetic leg when investigators burst into the room.

"I always sleep with it under my bed," Rinick said, who lost part of his leg in a motorcycle accident several years ago.

Rinick, confirming earlier testimony from Merlino, said he frequently stayed at her home to baby-sit her two young daughters.

The children's live-in nanny "only worked Monday through Thursday," Rinick said. "I would stay on weekends and baby-sit when she would go out with the guy from New York."

Asked on both direct and cross-examination if he had anything to do with the murder of Adam Finelli, Rinick said, "No, I did not."

Authorities have said that Rinick killed Finelli in order to steal the cash that was later found in Merlino's closet and because he thought Finelli was an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I didn't need his money," Rinick said at another point, claiming that he had $350,000 in cash hidden behind a Jacuzzi in his home on South Camac Street.

The money, Rinick admitted, came from drug trafficking. Asked by Cameron where the money was today, Rinick replied: "I guess it's still behind the Jacuzzi. You guys didn't find it [when the Camac Street property was searched]."

Focoso, an associate of Rinick's and Finelli's in the drug trade, testified earlier in the trial that he was present when Rinick pumped four or five shots into the back of Finelli's head.

Focoso said that he was sitting in the passenger seat of Finelli's Cadillac SUV and that Rinick was sitting in the backseat when the shooting occurred.

Focoso said that Finelli had stopped the vehicle near the corner of 18th and Jackson Streets and that the three of them were talking when Rinick unexpectedly pulled out a gun and opened fire.

Focoso said he was stunned by the shooting but said Rinick told him, "Come on. Let's go. He ain't driving no more."

The two then fled, Focoso said.

Closing arguments in the trial, which began Oct. 17, are expected today. Rinick, already serving a 30-year sentence for his drug conviction, could be sentenced to death if convicted of murd