DANIA BEACH, Fla. — A 66-year-old man who served prison time for a deadly stabbing in Hollywood is now accused of trying to stab another man to death in Dania Beach more than three decades later.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said they arrested Louis James Civale on Thursday night after the incident in the 200 block of Southwest Fourth Street.
Details about what led up to the incident weren’t immediately clear as of Friday; a BSO spokesperson said deputies were initially sent to the area at around 9:30 p.m. after reports of a possible shooting. The spokesperson said the victim, who hasn’t been identified, was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
While Civale is listed in BSO records as facing a charge of “murder premeditated,” the spokesperson said the agency was given no indication that the victim had died and he was still believed to be alive as of Friday evening.
Civale is already a convicted murderer.
Citing Hollywood police, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that Civale, then 33, stabbed his 36-year-old friend, Robert Pravata, to death at the latter’s home in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood back on May 2, 1993. Police told the newspaper then that Pravata “made a pass at” Civale and an argument broke out, leading up to the stabbing.
He was arrested three days later, having gone to Miami to pawn Pravata’s stereo and gold jewelry for crack cocaine money, the newspaper reported.
State corrections records show he was convicted of second-degree murder in 1994 and served about 12 years of a 30-year sentence.
He then served another 15 years behind bars after 2008 convictions for grand theft, trafficking in stolen property and providing false information to a pawnbroker. He was released from prison on March 8, 2023 and has been on conditional release ever since.
Records show Civale, also facing a charge of criminal solicitation of a first-degree felony, was being held without bond and on a parole violation at the BSO Main Jail as of Friday evening.
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