Tony Lucia was gunned to the eyeballs on cocaine.
His drug-addled brain had twisted reality into a paranoia-packed narrative that tragically featured his longtime pal Morris Conte, 45. Lucia believed Conte was engaged in a sordid affair with his wife.
By 2010, the longtime friendship had soured, largely down to Lucia hammering truckloads of blow. Lucia had become “paranoid, irrational, irritable and unpredictable.”
On May 21, 2010, Conte — a Bolton father of four — was reported missing. In the dark days that followed, Conte’s dismembered remains were found across Huronia and Muskoka.
At the time of his disappearance, it was reported that Conte — a general contractor who built custom homes — had some ties to both “Italian Mafiosi and outlaw bikers.” Was the grisly dismemberment murder intended to send a message?
Probably not, homicide detectives told the Toronto Sun. After all, mobsters are much more proficient in making bodies disappear and Conte’s connections to the underworld were tenuous at best.
No, this was personal.
Conte’s brother Rob Conte said at the time that while Morris had struggled with drug addiction in the past, he was “living a full and vibrant life.”
On Friday, Tony Lucia, 65, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Conte. After 12 years with the Conte case in limbo, he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in September 2022.
After Lucia pleaded guilty to manslaughter, the Crown kicked the murder charge to the curb.
According to CTV News, the Crown read an Agreed Statement of Facts that painted a portrait of Lucia and Conte’s shattered relationship. The unfriending was traced to Lucia’s escalating cocaine use.
On that terrible day in 2010, court heard, the two men were arguing. Lucia snapped and smashed Conte over the head, knocking him unconscious.
Jacked up on blow, Lucia told detectives he couldn’t be more specific as to what unfolded. He did recall using a workshop tool to hurt the mortally injured Conte. In the process of committing the vile deed, Lucia injured himself and went to the hospital.
He also confessed to his son, court was told. Sam Lucia found Conte’s body and then went to work cleaning up the crime scene.
And it was Sam who allegedly dismembered Conte and then took what was left of him on an odyssey where he periodically would dump the body parts. However, his father said he never directed his son to cover up the grisly crime.
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Cops must have known the sinister machinations almost from the start. In 2011, Sam Lucia was arrested and charged with being an accessory after death and committing an indignity to a human body. The Crown later withdrew those charges.
Prosecutors said Conte endured injuries to the head, ribs and a puncture wound in his right eye. That sounds like a message. But again, maybe, maybe not.
Ultimately, the murder of Morris Conte was never the result of Mob machinations.
“As was clear with the facts read, Mr. Lucia did not shoot Mr. Conte, nor did he intend to cause his death,” his lawyer Cosmo Galluzzo said in a statement to CTV News.
“They both consumed a significant amount of drugs and alcohol and became engaged in a physical altercation that went too far.”
Lucia has “accepted responsibility” for his friend’s terrible demise, his lawyer added, saying he hopes Conte’s family finds a measure of closure with the guilty plea.
Tony Lucia will soon learn how dire his twilight years are going to be.
@HunterTOSun