Carmine Carini is back in jail, awaiting trial in a string of robberies

Carmine Carini is back in jail, awaiting trial in a string of robberies.
Federal prosecutors say the 49-year-old Brooklyn man was free for less than a year before running into trouble.A judge ordered him held without bail Friday. He faces charges that he posed as a police officer and then barged into two homes on Staten Island demanding money and drugs, pistol whipping one startled homeowner. He is also charged with robbing an illegal gambling parlor in Brooklyn.
Carini was initially arrested in connection with one of the robberies last month. An accomplice is still at large.Carini served 23 years in prison for a mob-related killing in the 1980s. His conviction was overturned after two Mafia turncoats told investigators they had the wrong man.He was freed in May of 2007 after taking a plea bargain in which he agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a sentence of time served."Approximately one year after this defendant gets out of prison, where he had been for over 20 years, he turns right back to a life of crime and begins committing these robberies," Assistant U.S. Attorney Berit Berger said Friday in court.Carini's attorney, Sanford Talkin, said his client maintains that he is innocent.