Easton Christmas Morning Shooter Faces 20 Years in State Prison

FALL RIVER — An East Bridgewater man who shot an Easton man on Christmas morning in 2017 has been convicted and sentenced to serve a state prison term.

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III says 54-year-old Lee Fruzzetti was convicted Tuesday of aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after a five-day trial in Fall River Superior Court.  Judge Thomas McGuire sentenced Fruzetti to 15 to 20 years in state prison.

On December 25, 2017 at around 3:00 a.m., Easton Police responded to a home on Massapoag Avenue for a report of a male victim who had been shot twice while he slept in bed.  The victim was located and rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to his shoulder and hip.

“Shooting the victim in bed on Christmas Day speaks for itself.  Fortunately, the victim was not killed by the defendant, who has a history of breaking the law,” District Attorney Quinn said.

“The only alternative is to keep this defendant off the street for a long time to protect the victim and the public.”

An investigation revealed that the victim had been sleeping in his parents’ pool house when Fruzzetti walked onto the property and shot at him twice while he slept.  During the course of the investigation, it was learned that Fruzzetti had been engaged in a previous relationship with the victim’s ex-wife and that an antagonistic relationship had developed between the two men.

Surveillance video from the area showed that a vehicle matching Fruzzetti’s vehicle was seen driving to the home.  Additional, cell phone location data proved that Fruzzetti was in the immediate vicinity of the shooting at the time it occurred.

Fruzzetti, several weeks after the shooting, also called the victim and told him, “Sleep with one eye open. I’m going to finish you off.”