A man charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a man whom Mongols motorcycle gang members believed was a police informant killed himself Thursday in the Pinellas County Jail, deputies said.
Deputies found Vincent Romanino, 45, unresponsive in his cell around 3:40 p.m. with a bedsheet around his neck, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday. Deputies began lifesaving measures and kept at it until Romanino reached a hospital, where staff pronounced him dead shortly after 5 p.m.
About 25 minutes before they found him, deputies had checked on Romanino and saw him showering in his cell, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Based on the evidence, detectives determined the circumstances were consistent with suicide,” the news release states.
Surveillance video showed Romanino was alone in his cell, the sheriff’s office said.
Romanino was arrested in October 2023 and charged as an accessory to first-degree murder in the shooting of Dominick Paternoster, 46. He walked out of jail in January 2024 after posting a $100,000 bond.
When Paternoster was killed in April 2022, Romanino worked as a lightning load operator for the city of Tampa, according to court documents. He drove a heavy-duty truck fitted with a crane to pick up debris along the roadside. Prosecutors believed that after the murder, Romanino and fellow gang members burned evidence items and put the ashes in a trash can.
Last month, prosecutors questioned one of Romanino’s former supervisors in a deposition. They asked whether Romanino was signed up to operate the truck the day the remains disappeared. The supervisor said he had no knowledge of Romanino’s assignments during that period.
Romanino’s trial was set for Oct. 5, but the proceeding was delayed because prosecutors were still working to indict him on a first-degree murder charge.
A grand jury indicted Romanino on the murder charge two weeks ago, and he was booked back into the Pinellas County Jail on Oct. 16. His bond hearing was scheduled for next week.
It was unclear Friday what additional evidence prosecutors gathered for the murder indictment.
In a motion filed Oct. 19 asking a judge to set bond for Romanino, his attorney Sheryl Johansen wrote that “the defense has not been made aware of any additional evidence to justify the charge of murder in the first degree.”
According to the motion, Romanino lived in Lutz with his wife and 14-year-old daughter.
Johansen did not immediately return a message left for her Friday afternoon. An assistant said she was out of the office.
Romanino was one of four defendants charged in connection to Paternoster’s slaying, a case built largely on evidence from Flock camera snapshots.
Someone shot Paternoster multiple times inside his home at 104 Dunbridge Drive in Palm Harbor, sometime between 10:20 p.m. on April 27, 2022, and 1 a.m. the following morning, according to court documents. His body was found around 4:30 p.m. on April 28.
Detectives said members of the Mongols biker gang believed Paternoster was a “snitch,” but authorities would not confirm whether he was an informant.
About four months after the shooting, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri held a news conference on Aug. 29, 2022, to announce the indictment of Paul Mogilevsky on a first-degree murder charge in Paternoster’s death. Gualtieri said Mogilevsky belonged to the Raiders, a feeder group for the Mongols. The Mongols are based in California but have a Tampa Bay chapter.
According to Gualtieri, the Mongols and the Raiders share a clubhouse in Tampa. Paternoster and Mogilevsky were both there the night of April 27, 2022, and later left with another person and went to Paternoster’s house.
Court documents say a confidential witness told authorities that Mogilevsky planned the shooting and admitted to killing Paternoster. Investigators verified some of the details the witness provided.
Authorities also said evidence connected to the slaying was dumped in Tampa Bay, and dive team members recovered items.
During an April 29, 2022, interview, Dylan Pascale told detectives that he and another person had taken Paternoster home, and that Paternoster was asleep in a recliner when they left, the sheriff’s office previously said.
As the investigation moved forward, detectives said they found evidence that Pascale had lied about that night. The agency also said DNA on the spent shell casings next to Paternoster’s body belonged to Pascale.
“Paternoster was not just killed. He was executed,” Gualtieri said at the news conference.
Authorities arrested Pascale on a first-degree murder charge Oct. 12, 2022. He went to trial in August 2025 and received a life sentence.
Mogilevsky’s case is still pending.
Police arrested a fourth defendant, Joshualee Garcia, at the same time as Romanino on a charge of being an accessory to first-degree murder. He still faces that charge, and his case is still pending.
