Judge delays sentencing of cat slayer

Luigi Epifania faces a hearing on Sept. 4.

To his lawyer, Luigi Epifania is a "nice young man" who was overwhelmed by a heroin addiction when he told Boston police that he stomped a cat to death and then used the burning corpse to set an East Boston apartment on fire last year.

"By all accounts, he just seems a normal person," James Greenberg said of his 25-year-old client who is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 4 for killing the cat and for arson.

Wearing his hair pulled tight into a ponytail and with a smidgen of a beard on his chin, Epifania was in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday, expecting to be sentenced for his convictions.

But Judge Charles Spurlock postponed it to Sept. 4. "I need to know more about him," Spurlock said from the bench.

According to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office, Epifania had a violent episode on Princeton Street on June 13, 2007, when he was unable to find an acquaintance.

He eventually fell asleep on the steps of a building. When he awoke, Epifania told authorities, he spotted the cat, known as Nunu, who had no home but was a pet of the neighborhood. Then he "lost it."

He stomped and kicked the cat to death, and put it in a bag, doused it with lighter fluid, and tossed it into the building, where a fire caused "significant damage" to the first floor, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors seek a sentence of a maximum of four years in state prison for both crimes, followed by three years of probation, said Conley spokesman Jake Wark.

Greenberg insisted that there was no forensic evidence nor eyewitness accounts linking him to the killing, except for a confession that detectives coerced out of him.

"You have a man who's been on heroin for two years, and they [police] were able to get a confession out of him," Greenberg said in an interview.

According to Greenberg, the jury deliberated for five hours last week and then asked to listen to Epifania's taped statement to police. Following that, the jury voted to convict, the attorney said.

Wark strongly disagreed with Greenberg's claim that Epifania was victimized by detectives. He said Greenberg raised the issue during a hearing before another judge - and that judge let the confession be admitted during the trial.

"Ultimately, a Superior Court judge ruled against him. We believe that allegation has no merit," Wark said. "The jury clearly weighed the evidence and came to their decision supported by the facts and the evidence.'

Also yesterday, Epifania pleaded guilty to several assault and battery charges stemming from a June 11 incident in which he attacked an acquaintance with a knife, threatened him with a heated frying pan, splashed him with boiling water, and beat him.

Greenberg said his client and the victim were friends at the time and remain friends. He said they were both on heroin at the time.

Sentencing on the assault charges is expected to run concurrently with the arson conviction, but Spurlock has not made his decision, according to defense and prosecution attorneys.

John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.