Arrest Made In Stolen Lottery Ticket Case

A Johnston man is awaiting trial on on a felony charge of breaking and entering after his stepbrother's statements to police helped solve an investigation into stolen lottery tickets.

arrested Anthony Massi, 21, of 7 Colwell Dr., on Dec. 6 on one count of breaking and entering and a misdemeanor charge of receiving stolen goods for allegedly stealing more than 500 lottery tickets from Hawks Mobil on Greenville Avenue and attempting to redeem five of them at on George Waterman Road.

According to police records, Det. Anthony Sasso went to Massi's residence on Dec. 6 to find his stepbrother, Kenneth Chartier, who was seen on a surveillance video taken at Pick N Pay on Nov. 7.

Rhode Island Lottery officials confirmed that the tickets were stolen by "flagging" the electronic bar codes on the tickets and using the codes to track the location where they were redeemed. After the men turned in the tickets at the Pick N Pay, Sasso reported, officers matched the bar codes with those that had been flagged by the Rhode Island Lottery.

A store clerk positively identified Chartier from a photo line-up on Dec. 5, Sasso reported, and when he arrived at Massi's address, Sasso said, he also recognized Massi from the surveillance video.

Massi reportedly agreed to go to police headquarters, and at first denied that he had been involved in stealing lottery tickets, Sasso reported. When offered the chance to give a statement, Massi reportedly told Sasso: "I'm not tellling you anything, I want a lawyer."

Chartier arrived at the police station later that day, and Sasso reported that he advised Chartier of his constitutional rights and told him that he had been positively identified as one of the two men seen on the Pick N Pay surveillance video.

Chartier then reportedly agreed to cooperate with the investigation, and allegedly told Sasso that he served as a lookout while Massi broke into Hawks Mobil at about 2 a.m. on Nov. 6.

Sasso reported that Chartier was not charged after speaking with police.

Massi was then formally charged and kept in police custody until an arraignment the next morning in Third District Court in Warwick, where he was ordered held on $10,000 surety bail until a scheduled Feb. 7 court date. Judge Pamela Woodcock-Pfeiffer also issued a no-contact order.