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Prosecutors' documents detail murder-for-hire case against Graziano

By STEPHEN THOMPSON

spthompson@tampatrib.com

Published: April 8, 2009

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Edward Graziano

Joe the Hit Man was to follow Debra Graziano as she drove in her car, and then run her off the road. If she survived the faked accident, Joe would then go over to her crumpled wreck, lean in and break her neck.

That was the plan.

Edward Graziano, Debra's estranged husband, was willing to pay $2,100 to have it carried out.

This is the picture that emerges from hundreds of pages of documents that Edward Graziano's attorney, John Trevena, has received from prosecutors as part of the evidence-swapping process that precedes a criminal trial.

Graziano, 53, was arrested Feb. 26 on a charge of solicitation to commit murder. He is being held at the Pinellas County Jail.

The evidence includes 16 audio compact discs and seven video compact discs Pinellas County sheriff's investigators compiled as they surreptitiously monitored a private investigator who had done some work for Graziano but began working against him after he discovered Graziano wanted 56-year-old Debra killed, the documents show.

Some of the documents released by Trevena contain transcripts of those recordings.

The release of the documents comes as the Graziano family is locked in a civil suit with famed former wrestler Hulk Hogan and Hogan's family. Edward and Debra's son John was the passenger in a car wrecked by Hogan's son, Nick Bollea, on Aug. 26, 2007, leaving John with brain damage. He is in the James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital in Tampa.

At the time of the alleged murder-for-hire plot, Edward Graziano didn't have a job, and he was in fear of losing his home, the documents show. One motive for having Debra killed is that, without her, he would be in charge of John Graziano's care – and have at his access any funds won in the court battle with the Hogans, the documents show.

"Obviously, you know I would get the guardianship," he tells the private investigator in one of the audiotapes. "And then I would be in control of everything."

"You know I probably won't have to work because I would get paid for taking care of him," Edward says, referring to John.

But Edward Graziano, over the course of an investigation that lasted more than two months, also wavered on whether he actually wanted his wife of 29 years killed, the documents show. Almost up until the point he handed over the cash and a check to the private investigator at a Sunoco station, he was second-guessing his decision, the documents show.

'Run Anna into a pole'

On Dec. 9, Graziano asked the private investigator whether he knew any "unscrupulous type people" who would kill his wife, who Graziano refers to by her middle name of Anna, reports state. Graziano said he wanted someone to rent a car, change the license plate and "run Anna into a pole," killing her, the documents state.

"Yea, that's what I was thinking," Graziano says in another taped conversation. "More along the lines …of getting her into an accident and then you know wow hey if she dies that's not our fault (laughter)," according to one transcript.

He suggests at one point that Debra is killed while he is visiting John at the veterans' administration hospital in Tampa. "The first person they're gonna look at is me you know what I'm saying," he is quoted as saying in one of the transcripts.

At first the private investigator thought Graziano was venting, the papers state, but once it was apparent he wasn't, he contacted the Pinellas sheriff's office and began working for the agency as a confidential informant. For instance, a few days after Graziano first broached the subject, he called the private investigator and asked if he found any potential killers yet, the documents show.

One reason Graziano was mad as his estranged wife was because she wanted to buy her own new home with her son's veterans' administration benefits, and that she had found a doctor who would sign a release so she could care for John Graziano at her new home, the documents say.

By mid-December, the private investigator was cooperating with sheriff's detectives and had allowed them to surreptitiously tape his conversations with Graziano, the records state.

Ironically, Graziano asks the private investigator during these conversations whether the private investigator has any devices that Graziano could use to detect whether anyone he is dealing with is wearing a wire, such as those that look like a Bic pen or a lighter, the documents show.

The transcripts are full of examples of Graziano's apparent paranoia. He constantly worried that he may become the victim of a sting. He thought at one point the Hogans were following him. He constantly worried that, if he is found out, he will spend a considerable amount of time in prison. And he worried at one point that with Debra dead, he would leave his children without a mother.

When the private investigator starts discussing introducing Graziano to a man who will help him set up the hit, Graziano says, "How do I know this guy ain't a cop or something?"

Target wasn't worried

During their conversations, the private investigator tells Graziano he knows someone called Eric who repossesses cars for a living, and Eric the Repo Man knows Joe the Hit Man. On Jan. 24, an undercover sheriff's detective passing himself off as Eric meets the private investigator and Graziano at a Village Inn on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater. The sheriff's detective notices Graziano's hands are sweating.

This was where the arrangements were discussed in detail.

Earlier in the month, a decision had been made by sheriff's investigators to warn Debra Graziano, who was working as a housekeeper and nanny. They did so at the offices of George Tragos, who is representing the Graziano family in the civil lawsuit filed against the Hogans.

"Debra did not appear to be overly surprised or overly concerned," one detective wrote in a report. The reason for her "low-key" response, she said, was all the things Edward had put her through in their marriage. Debra Graziano had filed several restraining orders against her husband, but also had the habit of asking they be rescinded, court records show.

In the end, Edward Graziano met the private investigator at the Sunoco station and gave him 10 $100 bills, two $50 bills, and a personal check for $1,000 from his bank account, the documents say. He wasn't worried about the check getting traced back to him because the private investigator was expected to draw up some invoices, as if the investigator had done work for him, the documents show.

Graziano also included in his delivery a gift card from Westshore Pizza with a balance of $13.06.

"There's something in there for you and your kids," Graziano said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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