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College Pt. contractor: Guilty of murder again

By Matthew Monks

Ralph Romano Jr., 41, owner of the College Point bridge painting firm of Romano Enterprise, faces 25 years to life for shooting John Spensieri nine times in 1989 at the victim's home on 21st Avenue, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Friday.Spensieri was dating Romano's mother. The two men were business partners in a Brooklyn carting business before Romano left to start up his own company in Queens. Brown said Spensieri was Romano's former mentor.Romano killed the 51-year-old during an argument on June 7, 1989.”The defendant has been convicted for a second time,” Brown said in a statement. “Angry that he had been disrespected, (Romano) went to the victim's home, lured him to the basement, shot him several times in the back and then stood over him and shot him repeatedly in the face, killing him. The defendant took a life in cold blood to satisfy his ego.”Romano was charged with the crime a decade later in 2000 based on evidence collected by the Police Department's Cold Case Squad, Brown said.He was convicted of the murder in November 2001, but the verdict was set aside after Justice Arthur Cooperman found that jurors violated the rules of conduct by reading a New York Post article linking Romano to the Mafia. They also passed notes calling Romano a guilty “slime ball,” prosecutors said at the time.Cooperman, who presided over the retrial in Queens Supreme Court, said in his 2001 decision that the jury's behavior “created a substantial likelihood of prejudice.”Romano was convicted Friday of second-degree murder by a new jury of nine men and three women, who deliberated for five hours after the four-week trial.Romano was scheduled to be sentenced on June 29.Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.