Final Pre-trial Hearings Set for Monday in Walpole Homicide Case

Co-defendants Paul Moccia, of Dedham, and Daniel Bradley, of Westwood, are due in Norfolk County Superior Court Monday and Tuesday for their final pre-trial hearings in a 2009 homicide case involving a Framingham man.

The trial, delayed several times since the summer of 2010, is slated to begin in late May.

A judge will hear multiple evidentiary and discovery motions this week, although the Norfolk County District Attorney's office declined to elaborate further.

Moccia and Bradley are accused of killing 37-year-old Angel Antonio Ramirez in Walpole on March 20, 2009. According to court records, Moccia owed approximately $70,000 in drug money to Ramirez, who often allegedly shipped large quantities of cocaine from the West Coast.

To avoid paying the debt, Moccia and Bradley allegedly killed Ramirez at Bradley's concrete cutting business in Walpole, and then conspired to dismember and "cook" the body, according to filed affidavits.

Police used cell phone records to connect Moccia, Bradley and Ramirez on the night of the alleged incident, documents state. Authorities believe Ramirez went to Moccia’s apartment at Jefferson Station in Dedham on March 20, 2009, and his cell phone last registered off a cell tower in Norwood. Cell phones belonging to Moccia and Bradley utilized towers near Bradley’s Walpole business, court documents stated.

Moccia enlisted the help of his brother, Robert Moccia, to drop-off Ramirez's truck in Framingham, and then drive him back, according to court records. In police interviews, authorities said Robert Moccia admitted to discussing his brother's involvement several times during in-person and phone conversations.

Both Moccia and Bradley have been held without bail since June 2009 when they were arrested, and were indicted on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in August 2009.