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Michael Barbarino, who was 4 then, testified that he tried to prevent the rape and killing of their younger brother at a deserted Lodi construction site but was overpowered. After that, he said, Joseph removed Vincent’s clothing, stuffed it under a nearby trailer and carried the body to a fuel truck. Police found the body in the truck’s cab about two hours later during a search that involved family members.
Case notes show that police found bruise marks on Michael’s neck, as well.
Joseph Barbarino, who was tried and convicted in Family Court in Hackensack because of his age at the time of the killing, already is serving 50 years in prison for raping an 11-year-old female relative. The judge set a July 15 sentencing date.
“Joe Joe” Barbarino was the primary suspect from the moment the nude body of then-missing Vincent was found.
He’d been stabbed three times across his stomach.
Joseph later failed a lie-detector test, but that’s inadmissible in court. Prosecutors had no knife, no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses. A tough nut, for sure. But time, circumstance and new “C.S.I.”-type techniques to analyze evidence were brought into play.
Prosecutors also had Michael Barbarino — who recalled details from that fateful night — even though other members of the Barbarino family split strongly on opposite sides. Many of them still live in the same two-story duplex on Lafayette Place that they did when the boy suddenly went missing, only to be found dead two hours later.
Their sister, Ann Barbarino Crane, supported Joseph and insisted Michael concocted the murder tale as revenge against his brother for molesting him. Several years ago, Ann tipped off detectives that Michael was carrying a loaded gun — for which he ended up spending six years in prison.
With both brothers locked up at the same time, investigators planted a recording device on Michael, hoping to get Joseph to confess the murder to him. Michael, instead, told his brother he was wired.
Cops who knew him said Joe Barbarino was a troubled kid sheltered by his mother, even though he bullied other neighborhood youngsters.
That hasn’t seemed to change over the years. Michael is the only one who’s been willing to defend his dead brother’s memory and challenge Joseph, who married Michael’s ex-wife.
It wasn’t as if investigators didn’t try. Subpoenas were issued in 1988, and all prosecutors got for it were conflicting stories in front of a grand jury.
Michael Mordaga, the retired chief of detectives for the Prosecutor’s Office, once told CLIFFVIEW PILOT he believes Joseph Barbarino‘s mother, Estelle, knew what really happened but didn‘t want to lose another son. He also said records show that family members initially told detectives they often overheard Joseph saying “I killed Vincent” or “I should kill you like I killed Vincent.” They later recanted.
In fact, Mordaga said, records show Joseph Barbarino stabbed another brother, Peter, in the upper thigh during a fight years earlier. No police report was ever produced.
Michael Barbarino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT he endured years of therapy that turned him into a petty criminal. After offering to testify, he said, he was ostracized by his own family. Had his brother been locked up right away, he claims, his life would have been different.
“I fingered Joe Joe [to authorities] many years ago, but nothing ever happened,” he said. “He’s my brother, but I can’t stand behind him…. I don’t want to run anymore.”
He told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that he hoped his brother’s conviction would help turn his life around for good.
Records show:
Vincent Barbarino was first reported missing by his mother shortly before 10:30 p.m. April 5, 1972.
Two hours later, Vincent’s stabbed, nude body was found inside the cab of a red fuel truck a few blocks from the Barbarino home. Forty feet away, police found his clothes and bloodstains.
Michael Barbarino told authorities in 1988 that he saw the murder, pinning it on his brother. A grand jury was impaneled, but family members’ stories don’t add up.
Molinelli made cold cases a priority when he became prosecutor. So in 2006, investigators from his office arrested Joseph Barbarino on murder charges after reviewing the file and interviewing family members and friends, including some people who either hadn‘t been spoke to before or originally gave only brief statements.
During a search of the house, investigators reported finding letters in which Joseph Barbarino described raping the girl, for which he was later convicted.
And even though Joseph Barbarino is all but assured of dying in behind bars — where he already has spent nearly half his life — his brother’s death had to be avenged, the cold case closed, Molinelli said.
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