Cyanide-Coffee Killing Allegedly Triggered By Debt

WOBURN, MA -- A Springfield man testified during William J. Camuti's murder trial on Thursday that in 2009 he answered Camuti's ad on Craig's List offering "Hard Cash Loans."

Camuti loaned Charles Becker, of Springfield, more than $40,000 to rehab his home.The loan was repaid and the deal was done.

But Becker testified Camuti told "so many stories...He told me about his son and his affluent contacts.''

In July of 2013, when investigators spoke to Camuti, 69, about Stephen Rakes' murder they found Camuti living in a tiny one-room apartment in Sudbury.

He supplemented his meager Social Security income by buying, fixing and selling projectors from a basement workshop in Waltham, investigators said.

Camuti was still working on deals, but they allegedly revolved around Rakes, his friend and business partner, and Rakes' cash.

Prosecutor Adrienne Lynch alleges that a $100,000 debt Camuti owed Rakes was motivation for murder.

On the afternoon of July 16, 2013, Camuti allegedly lured Rakes to a McDonald's in Waltham with the promise of a check.

Camuti initially told police the two men were going to look at 11 acres in Wilmington as an investment. But investigators could find no such land deal.

At the McDonald's, Lynch alleges Camuti handed Rakes an iced-coffee laced with the deadly poison cyanide.

Rakes' body was found on the afternoon of July 17, 2013 by a jogger in a wooded area off Mill Street in Lincoln.

An autopsy showed Rakes died of acute cyanide toxicity and the manner of death was homicide.

Camuti became a prime target of the homicide investigation because he was the last one to see Rakes' alive on July 16, 2013.

After allegedly attempting suicide days after Rakes' body was found, Camuti allegedly confessed to investigators that he spiked Rakes' coffee with several teaspoons of cyanide.

Camuti allegedly admitted it took several hours for the poison to take affect.

Camuti allegedly told police he drove from the McDonald's in Waltham to Woburn to Burlington before dragging the body into a wooded area off Mill Street in Lincoln.

Photo of William J. Camuti by Lisa Redmond/lisa.redmond@patch.com. Courtesy photo of Stephen Rakes.