CRAZY, STUPID LOVER
Had ‘Valerie’ tat, stole $54G ring for ‘killer’ cop
John DiRubba wore his cop girlfriend’s name tattooed on his wrist — and planned to slip a stolen $54,000 engagement ring on her finger.
The dysfunctional and ultimately treacherous relationship between the FBI informant and married NYPD Officer Valerie Cincinelli appeared headed for a walk down the aisle just one month before authorities say she asked him to find a hit man willing to whack her estranged husband and DiRubba’s unsuspecting teenage daughter.
DiRubba, 54, allegedly stole a 5-carat diamond at gunpoint from a Long Island jewelry store owner this past January, taking off after announcing he had immediate plans for the purloined gem.
DiRubba, after meeting the storeowner on Third Ave. in Manhattan, said that he planned to present the diamond to Cincinelli over dinner that night, according to the victim. The informant added that he needed to move quickly because he needed to pick up his daughter after school, the owner said.
“He said, ‘I have a gun and I’m going to harm you if you don’t give me the diamond,’ ” the storeowner recalled Tuesday of the Jan. 15 heist. “At that point, what are you going to do? He said he would come to the store later and pay me the money. He said he had a lot of things to take care of, that he was with gangsters, with Gotti — a lot of bulls—-.”
Cincinelli, 34, wanted the hit man to take out DiRubba’s 15-year-old daughter as well as her husband to clear any impediments to their illicit romance, authorities alleged.
Back in January, love was in the wintry air as DiRubba bolted without paying for the diamond. The storeowner called the cops, and DiRubba was busted the next day for grand larceny and robbery for the theft of the $54,831 sparkler, according to a criminal complaint.
“He said he was going to propose to [Cincinelli],” said the storeowner. “He said that he had to give her the ring today, that he was going out to dinner. Maybe his girlfriend still has the diamond.”
If so, it’s unlikely she has it with her. Cincinelli remains locked up without bail in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Mob wanna-be DiRubba, who rubbed elbows with cast members of “The Sopranos,” always dressed in a sweatsuit and sported multiple tattoos – including “VALERIE” on his wrist.
The storeowner said he never met Cincinelli, but everyone at his business remembered meeting DiRubba.
“He told us he was on ‘The Sopranos,’ ” said a jewelry store employee. “He’s a shady character. You could tell, he’s shady.”
Cincinelli was arrested Friday after an FBI agent posing as the hit man said her husband, Isaiah Carvalho, was dead, even texting a staged photo of the supposedly slain spouse. The “killer” then asked for another $3,000 to take out the teenage girl, a killing ordered because a jealous Cincinelli believed the girl blocked her from spending time with DiRubba.
When the “hit man” blanched at killing the girl near a school, Cincinelli suggested a grisly scenario: “Run her the f—- over. How about that?”