Dead Man Inc. Member Admits to Retaliating Against a Federal Witness

Greenbelt, Maryland –Anthony E. Alascio, age 31, formerly of Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty today, before jury selection began in his trial, to retaliating against a witness who had testified in a federal criminal trial involving Dead Man Inc. (DMI).

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Special Agent in Charge Don A. Hibbert of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Baltimore District Office; Colonel Woodrow Jones, Chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police; Special Agent in Charge Daniel L. Board Jr. of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - Baltimore Field Division; and Secretary Stephen T. Moyer of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional   Services.

On November 26, 2013, Alascio was an inmate at the Chesapeake Detention Facility (CDF) in Baltimore, awaiting trial in federal court on charges stemming from a December 28, 2012 armed robbery of a pharmacy in case number ELH-13-0153 (Robbery Case). 

According to his plea agreement, Alascio was a member of Dead Man, Incorporated (DMI), a criminal gang founded in Maryland prisons in the 1990s.  On November 26, 2013, during a series of recorded telephone call made from CDF, Alascio informed several individuals that he would soon be going into secure detention because of something he was about to do.

Later that day, Alascio assaulted another inmate at CDF using a sock filled with batteries and dominoes that had been taped together. The victim was seriously injured, including serious bleeding, lacerations that required stitches, and bruising. The victim was admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment and discharged two days later.

During the assault, Alascio called the victim a “snitch.” The assault was captured on video and the weapon was later found in Alascio’s cell. In a letter written in detention later that evening, Alascio admitted to beating the victim. Alascio referred to the victim as a “RAT” and stated that the victim “told on my peoples so he got what he deserved.” 

Several weeks before the assault, the victim testified in the federal trial of Jose Morales. Evidence introduced at the Morales trial established that Morales paid DMI to murder Robert Long. Jose Joaquin Morales, age 40, of Baltimore, Maryland, was convicted at that trial by a federal jury for using a cell phone to arrange the murder-for-hire of Robert Long.  Morales was sentenced to life in prison on December 9, 2013. The prosecution of Morales resulted in the exoneration of Demetrius Smith, who was serving life in state prison for the murder -- a crime he did not commit.

Alascio faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.  U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus has scheduled sentencing for October 14, 2016 at 10:00 a.m.

On December 23, 2013, Alascio pled guilty to robbery in the Robbery Case and was sentenced on March 28, 2014 to 135 months in federal prison.  

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the DEA, Maryland Transportation Authority Police, ATF and Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zachary A. Myers and Sandra Wilkerson, who are prosecuting the case.