Judge dismisses charges against Port Richmond man in 2013 murder of Bucks County businessman

A judge has dismissed murder and rape charges against a Port Richmond man in a 2013 home invasion and killing of a Bucks County restaurateur and businessman.

Thomas Delgado, 50, had been accused earlier this year of stabbing Joseph Canazaro, 40, in the garage of his home in Hilltown Township and of raping Canazaro’s girlfriend.

But Magisterial District Judge Regina Armitage ruled Monday that there wasn’t enough evidence linking Delgado to the crime. Most critically, she said, DNA taken from a T-shirt used by the masked man who raped the woman did not match Delgado, according to evidence presented during his preliminary hearing.

The only charges that Armitage said could proceed to trial were conspiracy and receiving stolen property, based on a face mask found in Canazaro’s truck that contained Delgado’s DNA. The vehicle had been stolen after the robbery and left abandoned at a Friendly’s restaurant in Quakertown, according to prosecutors.

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Rees then withdrew those remaining charges.

Afterward, Rees said he and his colleagues were still determining whether they would refile charges against Delgado as they continued to investigate Canazaro’s slaying.

“Clearly, we do believe the right person was arrested,” Rees told reporters, noting that the mask with Delgado’s DNA matched the description of the one worn by the rapist. “We respect the results today, but we will make a decision once we have all the stakeholders or shareholders in place and go from there.”

Canazaro was well-known in the community: He co-owned Finn McCool’s Tavern in Ambler, owned several contracting companies, and had mortgages on properties including a Lansdale auto garage. He had previously hired Delgado to work on his home in Hilltown, according to court testimony.

Delgado became a suspect in the killing in 2019, when a routine reexamination of the case discovered the face mask, which had fallen between the seats of Canazaro’s truck and gone overlooked for years.

Prosecutors later learned that a Samsung Galaxy belonging to Canazaro received five calls from a phone registered to Delgado between August and December 2011, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Delgado’s arrest. Other records showed that Canazaro’s Samsung also received 45 calls between June and November 2011 from a phone belonging to a woman Delgado lived with.

During the January 2013 burglary, two men broke into the 4,000-square-foot-home that Canazaro rented on a 10-acre plot in Hilltown through a first-floor window.

Canazaro’s girlfriend, hearing them enter, went to confront them armed with a .38-caliber revolver, but saw she was outnumbered by the burglars, who were pointing their guns at Canazaro, the affidavit said.

The woman later told police the larger of the two men told the couple he had been staking out the house for weeks from the nearby woods.

“We know you have the money, just give us the money,” she said the man told her, according to court filings.

The two men then bound Canazaro, his girlfriend, and his then-12-year-old son with zip ties at knifepoint. They placed his girlfriend and son facedown on the floor. The woman later told police she could hear the burglars walking Canazaro through the home, demanding to know where he kept his money.

While his accomplice continued the search of the home, one of the masked men took the woman into a nearby bathroom and raped her, the affidavit said. Later, the men took her and Canazaro’s son into a basement room and left them there.

Officers who arrived at the scene found Canazaro facedown in the home’s garage. He had been stabbed multiple times and was pronounced dead.