Surviving Brooklyn twin slapped with long jail term in 2017 cinder-block murder of roommate
A Brooklyn man, after trying to blame a gruesome 2017 killing on his dead twin, was slapped with a lengthy prison term for the brutal murder of his best friend inside their Mill Basin home.
Louie Iacono, dressed in a black velour tracksuit with his dark hair slicked back, was sentenced to a term of 23 years to life at a Friday hearing where the heartbroken family of victim Carmine Carini Jr. called for the suspect to serve the maximum.
“We want Louie to never see the light of day,” said Carini’s girlfriend. “He showed no remorse. The death penalty wouldn’t be bad in this case.”
The girlfriend and the victim’s mother recounted how Iacono, 42, tried to hang the murder on his late brother Vincent after the sibling died of an apparent drug overdose two years ago.
“He is a lowlife and tried to blame his brother,” said the girlfriend. “Identical twins share the same DNA, so Louis tried to blame him ... The jury saw right through it.”
Vincent Iacono was arrested on lesser charges after Carini’s body was found floating in the waters off Brooklyn on Sept. 2, 2017, his corpse weighed down by a cinder block tied around the victim’s ankles.
Carini, the son of a Gambino crime family associate, was fatally smashed in the head with a hammer inside the home shared by the three friends.
His body was also wrapped in a blue tarp and bound with duct tape, with authorities alleging the slaying occurred during a robbery of the victim.
The twins fled Brooklyn immediately after the savage killing, with the pair arrested four days later following a 12-mile high-speed chase that ended 700 miles away with their arrests at a Wal-Mart in Indiana.
The fugitive siblings, with Louie behind the wheel, were stopped for tailgating inside a car registered in their mother’s name before speeding away and eventually landing in handcuffs.
Police recovered three hammers from inside the Chevrolet Avalanche, including one covered in blood, prosecutors said, and Vincent was charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.
Their pickup truck was also laden with heroin, pain pills and drug paraphernalia, cops said, and Vincent served 17 months on a tampering conviction.
“You know I didn’t kill anybody,” Vincent told an NYPD detective, according to court records. “He was my best friend. Did you hear if anyone else was involved?”
The girlfriend remembered Carini, owner of a flower shop, as a gentle soul. And she recalled her immediate suspicion that the brothers were behind his death.
“When the cops came to my house, I knew the twins did it,” she said. “I told them the truth: ‘I think the twins did it.’”
The victim’s mother confirmed the two siblings and her son were tight before the vicious murder.
“They were friends for 12, 13 years,” she said after the sentencing. “Carmine trusted them. They took all of my son’s jewelry and his clothes. Everything.”
