WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who has spent more than 35 years in prison for the gruesome 1979 killing of his great aunt has been freed while he fights his conviction.

Gary Cifizzari, of Taunton, was released Friday after a judge stayed his sentence.

His lawyers said in a motion filed in May that DNA tests indicate a now deceased Rhode Island man who had been a suspect in the case was the killer.

They say Cifizzari and his late brother were wrongly convicted of murder in 1984 in the killing of 75-year-old Concetta Schiappa, of Milford, because the case depended on flawed bite mark evidence testimony.


The judge gave prosecutors until Oct. 18 to file an opposition to Cifizzari’s motion for a new trial. He’s subject to GPS monitoring and will receive care at a respite center in Boston.