How cops grilled alleged mob-boss killer on possible Mafia ties, rub-outs
Updated Oct 31, 2019;
Posted Oct 31, 2019
Cops wanted to avoid mob war in grilling of alleged Mafia boss killer
Anthony Comello, 25, left, appears in court in Staten Island on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, with his lawyer Robert Gottlieb. Comello is accused of slaying Francesco (Franky Boy) Cali outside the victim's Dongan Hills home in March 2019. (Photo Credit: Shira Stoll/Staten Island Advance/Pool)
By Frank Donnelly |
fdonnelly@siadvance.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Only three people were in the room when two detectives interrogated alleged killer Anthony Comello in a New Jersey prosecutors’ office seven months ago.
But one unseen presence loomed extremely large: The mob.
For three-and-a-half hours, detectives grilled Comello, accused of gunning down alleged Gambino crime family boss Francesco (Franky Boy) Cali, 53, outside the victim’s Staten Island home on March 13, to determine whether he had executed an underworld hit.
Among other things, authorities feared a potential mob war if Cali had been assassinated in a turf war or coup.
“I’m trying to avoid any further bloodshed,” Detective Daniel Guariano told Comello in a videotape of the interview, portions of which were played Wednesday during a pretrial hearing in state Supreme Court, St. George.
Comello, for his part, initially denied knowing Cali or having any mob connection.
“I never knew him. I got no affiliation with no Mafia. I’m f-----. I’m hunted for the rest of my life,” Comello told detectives. “It was a complete misunderstanding. It’s not like you guys think it is. I was not sent there. I swear to God, I wasn’t sent there. I’m not lying to you. I don’t live that lifestyle.”
However, later in the interview he changed his story several times, first saying unnamed “people” had blackmailed him into the killing, then claiming mobsters had texted him a few days before the slaying telling him to “take care of that other guy.”
Another line of questioning centered on whether Comello had once been the boyfriend of Cali’s niece and planned an overseas trip with her.
On Dec. 5, Justice William E. Garnett will rule on the admissibility of Comello’s statements to authorities.
The judge will determine if Comello was informed of his right to remain silent and whether the statements were properly obtained.
He will not decide on the statements’ accuracy or validity. A jury will ultimately determine those issues. A trial date has not been set.
Defense lawyer Robert Gottlieb contends the Eltingville resident’s statements should be suppressed due to his physical and mental state during the interview.
Gottlieb told investigators he was taking HIV medicine, wasn’t feeling well and had vomited about a half-hour into the interrogation.
The defense also maintains Comello, 25, exhibited symptoms of paranoia, particularly with his remarks about omnipresent government spying, as well as his contention that notorious mob turncoat Sammy (the Bull) Gravano “is a CIA agent from Day One.”
Assistant District Attorney Wanda DeOliveira countered that Comello had been read his right against self-incrimination, waived it and spoke to investigators.
She said the defendant continued talking to detectives for about two-and-a-half hours even after throwing up and after investigators had offered to take him to the hospital.
At the outset of the interview, Comello said he was smoking pot as the events unfolded on March 13.
The interrogation was held in the Ocean County (N.J.) prosecutor’s office because the defendant had been arrested in the nearby town of Brick at a home owned by his family.
Guariano, one of the detectives, questioned why he was on Cali’s block. The victim lived on a cul-de-sac, miles away from Comello’s home.
The defendant said he went to smoke weed there because there’s not a lot of traffic on the street.
“In the middle of the block you can’t see nothing, so I parked there,” Comello said. “I was high.”
Comello who said he had also taken suboxone, said he mistakenly put his pickup truck in reverse and hit Cali’s SUV on the street, knocking off the license plate.
Cali came outside, they spoke, and he apologized but Cali became incensed.
“He said, ‘What are you, f------ kidding me? … You don’t know who I am. I could have you killed. You’re lucky I don’t kill you right here and now,’” Comello told Guariano.
Frightened, Comello said he shot Cali.
“I was scared. I was jumpy, I was high. … I just zoned out. … I would never do something malicious like that,” said Comello.
Asked about the weapon, a 9 mm, Comello told the detective, “I always had that gun. It’s a just-in-case gun.”
The detective then asked what happened to it.
“It’s gone. It’s on a seabed,” said Cali. “I threw it off a high place.”
Asked if he tossed it off the Goethals Bridge while driving in his car, he said yes, seemingly facetiously.
Comello said he didn’t know Cali and insisted the mob didn’t dispatch him to execute the victim.
He also denied anyone in his family having mob ties.
“Nobody in my family is a made member,” he said. “My father raised me if you hang out with s---, you’re gonna smell like s---.”
Pursuing potential mob links, detectives asked if he had, a few years earlier, booked a trip to the Bahamas with a woman but didn’t go.
They identified her as Cali’s niece.
Comello was incredulous.
“I don’t know who the f--- his niece is,” he said, his voice rising. “When did that happen?”
Told it was two or three years earlier, Comello responded, “I didn’t have money two or three years ago. I was a junkie.”
Comello claimed the father of a woman he once knew had mob ties, and he ultimately went into witness protection. That man apparently was not related to Cali.
As the interview continued, Comello altered his account of Cali’s death.
He said some “people” had blackmailed him into the killing.
“They spread out propaganda on how I got it,” he said referring to HIV, which, he said, he contracted from a stripper and for which he was taking medicine. “They blackmailed me into doing it, saying that’s what they’re gonna do if I don’t do it.”
Seeking to identify those persons, the detective then mentioned the names of two prominent alleged mobsters.
“I’m not a rat,” Comello responded. “I’m not being a rat.”
Afterward, Comello provided yet another version of the events.
He said some mobsters had given him a burner phone. Two days before the killing, he received a text message telling him to “take care of that other guy,” he said.
Afterward, Comello said he went to Cali’s house to “spill the beans” and advise that organized crime had put out a hit on him.
Asked where the phone was, Comello said he put it in a “microwave.”
