NYPD cop Valerie Cincinelli’s alleged murder-for-hire plot
By Larry Celona, Lorena Mongelli and Bruce Golding
New York Post
May 17, 2019
An NYPD cop gave her boyfriend $7,000 to hire a hitman to kill her estranged husband — and the lover’s own teenage daughter — in a heinous plot that ended in her arrest Friday, authorities said.
Officer Valerie Cincinelli was even fooled into thinking her hubby had been offed — thanks to a photo authorities staged that supposedly showed him dead in his car, court papers show.
“The evidence in this case is overwhelming,” Brooklyn US Attorney Richard Donoghue said in legal documents, as prosecutors successfully argued for Cincinelli to be held without bail.
Cincinelli, a 34-year-year mom of two, hatched the scheme in February, when she asked her unidentified boyfriend to hire a hitman, court papers say.
But the beau told the FBI and began working as a confidential source, including by letting the feds record his phone calls with Cincinelli and wearing a recording device when they met in person, documents state.
As part of the plot, Cincinelli allegedly withdrew $7,000 from a TD Bank branch around Feb. 18 and gave it to her boyfriend, who then used the money to buy 5 ounces of gold coins to purportedly pay the hitman.
At one point, Cincinelli was recorded allegedly asking her boyfriend, “Did you do it yet?” according to a law enforcement source familiar with the case.
On Monday afternoon, the boyfriend told Cincinelli that the hitman was at her estranged husband’s place of work on Long Island, but she said he should be killed in “the hood” or “the ghetto” so “it would not look suspicious,” court papers say.
The boyfriend also said the hitman had located his daughter in New Jersey but “did not want to carry out the murder near a school,” court papers say.
“Run her the fuck over, how about that,” Cincinelli allegedly responded.
At one point, Cincinelli asked her boyfriend why he “could not carry the murders him/herself,” the court documents said.
On May 8, the boyfriend told Cincinelli that the killings were going to take place that weekend, the papers said.
Cincinella — saying she was worried how it would look if both slayings occurred so close together — told her beau “to have the hitman kill [the teen] over the weekend and then wait a week or a month to kill” her husband, the documents said.
On Friday morning, a Suffolk County detective who was working with the feds went to Cincinelli’s home in Oceanside and falsely told her that her estranged husband, Isaiah Carvalho Jr., was dead, court papers say.
Cincinelli cried “fake tears” during the meeting, a source said.
After the cop left, the boyfriend, who was also there, recorded Cincinelli discussing “what her alibi would be if she were to be questioned by the police,” court papers say.
He also showed her a text message from the feds that he claimed came from the hitman, which included a staged photograph of her estranged husband “appearing dead in his car,” court papers say.
Cincinelli was arrested at her home a short time later and charged with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors didn’t divulge a motive for why Cincinelli allegedly wanted to eliminate Carvalho, 32.
Carvalho sued his wife for divorce last year in Nassau County Supreme Court, and they have a trial set for June, according to court records.
Cincinelli — who has a son with Carvalho and a daughter with an ex-husband — wanted her boyfriend’s 15-year-old daughter killed because “she was getting in the way,” a source said.
Cincinelli used her cellphone to track the girl on social media, court papers.
Cincinelli joined the NYPD in 2007 and formerly worked as a domestic-violence officer in the 106th Precinct in Queens, and sources said she met her boyfriend while working a case.
In 2017, she was suspended for a month and then placed on modified duty after a Howard Beach man with whom she’d been involved in a relationship told the Internal Affairs Bureau that she spent time at his home while on-duty, sources said.
It’s unclear if that man — who was described as an older “sugar daddy” who paid for Cincinelli’s car and other bills — is the same one who helped the feds build their case against her.
Carvalho declined to discuss the alleged plot against him with The Post on Friday, saying, “You gotta give me some time. I can’t talk about this right now.”
His divorce lawyer, Matthew Weiss, said Carvalho was “extremely grateful for the diligent effort of law enforcement.
“He’s obviously shaken up but he’s doing OK, all things considered,” Weiss added.
Cincinelli’s father, who lives in Virginia, called the allegation that she wanted Carvalho killed “bullshit.”
“They were married, they have a kid together. … There is no way on the planet my daughter would have someone try to murder him. That’s nonsense!” he said.
The dad also said that Cincinelli “was going out with some wacko who made an allegation against her before that she tried to kill him.
“This jackass made allegations about her, and I’m sure he’s behind this.”
He refused to identify the man.
Carvalho and Cincinelli moved into a white Dutch Colonial home in Oceanside in October 2013 and split up about two years ago, a neighbor said. Cincinelli stayed in the home with their two kids, ages 9 and about 5.
She once had her estranged husband arrested following a dispute, the resident said.
After he moved out, cops were present every time she handed over their son for shared custody.
“You’d see it and feel bad for the kids,” the neighbor said.
“It looked nasty.”
A team of FBI agents spent about 90 minutes searching her house Friday afternoon, with one carrying a cardboard box when they left with a man carrying a sledgehammer and pry bar.
Cincinelli was hauled into federal court in Central Islip wearing a maroon “PINK” brand sweatshirt from Victoria’s Secret and neon-green sweatpants.
She looked like she’d been crying and said only “Yes, ma’am” to a series of procedural questions from the judge.
Prosecutor Catherine Mirabile said she used her cellphone to perpetrate the alleged plot and an FBI agent executed a search warrant by holding the phone in front of Cincinelli’s face to unlock it using facial-recognition technology.
Federal defender Tracey Gaffey argued for Cincinelli’s release on bond without addressing her guilt or innocence, but Judge Anne Shield denied the request, saying, “There is very strong evidence of guilt of the crimes of trying to get these two individuals murdered.”
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