Gangland 8/11/22

[Dr031718]

Feds Plan To Use The Father's Last Words To Help Them Convict The Son Of His Murder

Anthony ZottolaOn October 4, 2018, beleaguered Bonanno crime family associate Sylvestor (Sally Daz) Zottola sent a tender Happy Birthday text message to his grandson for his birthday that day: "Pop pop Love you so so much happy birthday," he wrote.

A few hours later, Sally Daz was shot five times and killed at a McDonald's drive thru restaurant in the Bronx. Now, proecutors are planning to use those endearing words as evidence at the murder-for-hire trial this month of his son Anthony and three members of the Bloods street gang who are charged with his gangland-style slaying, Gang Land has learned.

They'll also tell the jury what the murdered mob associate was discussing with his girlfriend as he drove to his execution that afternoon, prosecutors say in a court filing.

Sylvester Zottola's girlfriend," the prosecutors wrote, "will testify that she was on the phone with Zottola — as he was describing what he was doing — in the minutes and seconds before he was shot and killed. This description, contemporaneous with Zottola's actions, is relevant to show what Zottola was doing as he was murdered."

The feds also aim to use texts that Anthony Zottola exchanged with his father on June 21, 2018, nearly four months before he was killed. On that day, the prosecutors wrote, Anthony told his father about a news report that a Black man in his 30s was mugging elderly white men in The Bronx. The message, the feds claim, was intended to "mislead" his dad about why he had been assaulted four times in nine months.

Those texts and conversations Sally Daz had with his grandson, girlfriend and son Anthony are a small fraction of the evidence the feds say they have linking Anthony to the alleged 11-month plot to kill his father. But they are important and relevant info the prosecutors intend to tell the jury, according to several filings with Brooklyn Federal Judge Raymond Dearie.

On Monday, Dearie refused a request by accused Bloods leader Bushawn (Shelz) Shelton to put the case off due to government "delays" in turning over evidence. "There will be no adjournment," the judge wrote. The "delays" were due to "the complex nature of the case and the volume of evidence," he wrote, and did not warrant a delay of the four-year old case. Trial is slated to begin August 24.

The judge, who had previously rejected motions for separate trials by Zottola and Shelton, also issued a "guidance" to defense lawyers telling them not to "assume the probability of success" from their "motions to suppress evidence" of the alleged plots to kill Sally Daz and his son Salvatore that the feds learned from numerous search warrants they obtained in the case.

Most text messages between Shelton and Zottola read like discussions between a film director and a movie producer. But prosecutors say one text sent minutes after Sally Daz was killed is "relevant" because it was not coded, and it backs up the Happy Birthday text that Sally Daz sent his grandson the morning he was killed.

“In the minutes after (Sally Daz) was murdered, and after (Anthony Zottola was) informed that his father was murdered outside of a McDonald’s drive-thru," the prosecutoirs wrote, "Zottola texted Shelton, 'It's my lil man bday I am taking him to his favorite place mc Donald's than a movie. Lol Like I can eat that stuff. Thank you for being a great friend my man.'"

The fact that "it was, in fact Anthony Zottola's son's birthday," wrote prosecutors Kayla Bensing, Devon Lash, Emily Dean and Andrew Roddin, "is probative of the lack of the use of a code in this particular exchange." The text also corroborates the government claim that the duo had formed a close bond after they teamed up 14 months earlier, in August of 2017, to beat up Zottola's deadbeat tenants.

The June 21, 2018 text exchange between Anthony Zottola and his father that the prosecutors plan to introduce into evidence took place nine days after a gunman got out of a car in front of the Zottola home and approached Sally Daz, but then quickly turned and jumped back into the car which drove away when Daz pulled out his own gun and pegged a shot at the assailant.

It was the fourth time that members of the Bloods had assaulted or tried to kill Sally Daz, and in his text to his dad, the prosecutors wrote, Anthony "furthered the conspiracy by misleading Sylvester Zottola to believe that there were Black men in the neighborhood targeting older white men" so that Sally Daz would "continue to be in the dark about the source of the attacks."

In the text to his dad, Zottola wrote, "Black male 30 Year's old beat up white 61 year old male over money Pelham bay either Pelham bay station or middle town road station," accordfing to the government filing.

"I seen it on the news," Sally Daz replied.

The prosecutors note that the important aspect of that exchange for the jury to learn is that Anthony sent his dad a "misleading text message" that was designed to allay his father's fears that he was being targeted and to keep Sally Daz "in the dark about the (real) source of the attacks."

The prosecutors also intend to inform the jury about the pain, suffering, and fears that Sally Daz endured before he was killed, including a 2017 Christmas time stabbing in his Bronx home, through the testimony of his relatives, friends, and law enforcement officials he told about the year of terror that he lived through.

The "oral statements" by Sally Daz "describing the crimes being perpetrated against him, injuries that he suffered as a result of these crimes, and actions that he took because of, and at the time of the commission of the crimes," are "directly relevant to the charged murder conspiracy," the prosecutors wrote.

"They are evidence of the crimes" by the "deceased victim of the murder-for-hire plot" that details "the circumstances under which (Sally Daz) was repeatedly attacked and ultimately died, and provide(s) vital information as to why law enforcement's investigation proceeded as it did," the prosecutors wrote.

Police and FBI agents will testify that Sally Daz "described being blocked in by a van" on November 26, 2017 "and approached by a masked man who pointed a firearm" at him; that he told how he "was attacked and stabbed in his home on December 27, 2017;" and that he "fired a shot at an individual who approached his residence with a firearm" on June 12, 2018, they wrote.

"These statements are relevant because they are statements describing the crimes being perpetrated against (Sally Daz) as part of the murder-for-hire conspiracy" and "they are descriptions that only the deceased can provide," the prosecutors stated.

In their recent pre-trial filings, the prosecutors did not identify any of the friends or relatives who will testify about any statements they heard from Sally Daz, but Gang Land expects that one of them will be his son Salvatore, who miraculously survived his own drive-by shooting in front of his home, and whom prosecutors have previously stated will be a trial witness against his brother.

Dearie severed a perjury and obstruction of charge against Shelton from the case, and ordered the government to immediately turn over to the defense any and all so-called Brady material they cited that contains allegations from informants that the killing of Sally Daz and the attempted murder of his son Salvatore were the work of rival mob factions, not the Bloods.

The other defendants, accused Bloods members Himen (Ace) Ross and Alfred (Aloe) Lopez, are the alleged gunman and getaway driver, respectively, who used a tracking device to follow Sally Daz to the McDonalds restaurant on Webster Avenue and kill him on October 4, 2018.

Last week, Bloods gangster Arthur (Scary) Codner, who was part of the hit team that tried to kill Salvatore Zottola on July 11, 2018, copped a plea deal to two murder-for-hire counts with a statutory maximum of 40 years in prison, but with sentencing guidelines calling for up to 30 years behind bars.

Editor's Note: Chris Colombo, the son of the late Mafia boss Joe Colombo, talked about his life as a bookmaker and the House Arrest show that he did while awaiting trial for racketeering with Tom Robbins on Deadline NYC on Monday. Colombo also recalled his dad’s dealings and friendships with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin and ripped his father’s portrayal in The Offer series as a complete fraud, declaring that his father’s credo was, ”Might doesn’t make right; right make might.”

Venerable Brooklyn Judge Gives The Sally Daz Murder Trial To The New Judge On The Bench

Judge Raymond DearieIn a startling announcement two weeks before the start of trial, Senior Federal Judge Raymond Dearie has opted out of presiding over the Anthony Zottola murder-for-hire case.

For the past four years, Dearie has been overseeing the case in which Zottola is charged with hiring members of the Bloods street gang to kill his mob-linked father. But on the eve of trial, scheduled for later this month, the veteran jurist recused himself during a pre-trial conference yesterday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Dearie, 78, is a former U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn. He was appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan, was Chief Judge from 2007 until 2011, when he assumed senior status. The judge spoke slowly and haltingly as he told the opposing lawyers and defendants that newly appointed Brooklyn Federal Judge Henry Gonzalez will handle the expected six-to-eight week trial.

As a senior judge, Dearie, who took his seat on the federal bench in 1986, the same year he resigned his post as the chief federal prosecutor for Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island, did not have to explain why he was stepping aside. And he didn't.

The judge stressed that the case will go to trial as scheduled on August 24. He indicated that he would issue rulings on as many of the pending issues as he could by August 16, the day the pool of potential jurors will receive questionnaires about the case and when he will turn the case over to Gonzalez, who took his oath of office in April.

During the session, lead prosecutor Kayla Bensing placed "on the record" that the government had offered a plea deal to defendant Alfred (Aloe) Lopez, the accused getaway driver in the killing of Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola. The plea bargain called for a maximum of 40 years in prison with lower sentencing guidelines, but he rejected the offer, she said.

Bensing also said the government and attorneys for accused Bloods leader Bushawn (Shelz) Shelton had discussions about resolving the case without success, and that veteran defense attorney Susan Kellman had indicated she would be joining Shelton's defense team for the trial. Kellman, who won an acquittal for Colombo consigliere Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace at his 2013 trial for the 1997 murder of police officer Ralph Dols, could not be reached yesterday.

Lawyer Michael Marinaccio stated that the government had not tendered any plea offers to his client, Himen (Ace) Ross, the accused triggerman in the slaying of Sally Daz.

Henry Mazurek, who is representing Anthony Zottola, engaged in a lengthy tirade about the 24-hour-lockdown his client is enduring at the Metropolitan Detention Center since he was transferred there on July 21. Mazurek asked Dearie to order the feds to return his client to the Hudson County Correctional Center in Kearney so he would be able to properly defend him as he goes to trial "for his life."

Mazurek called the MDC a "disaster" that should be shuttered like the Metropolitan Correctional Center was last year. He noted that he had ready access to his client while he was in the New Jersey state facility, but that prosecutors were unable to get the MDC to place his client in general population so he could confer with him now.

He asked the judge to send him back to New Jersey. "It's only a 25 minute ride to the Brooklyn Courthouse," the lawyer said.

Prepare an order for me," said Dearie, who didn't make any guarantees, but indicated that he would order the MDC to transfer Zottola back to the Hudson County Correctional Center.

Gonzalez, 58, is a native of Havana Cuba who emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1969. He grew up in Queens, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1988.

Judge Gonzalez, who worked as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan for four years and served six years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan where he was Chief of the Narcotics Unit, was in private practice from 2000 until this spring, when President Biden nominated him for a seat on the Brooklyn bench.

Feds To Judge: No Compassion For Tommy Shots


Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli wants to come home. The Colombo wiseguy is suffering from bladder cancer and a number of other ailments and is slated to be released from prison next Spring. The feds say that's soon enough, and when he should be released for his racketeering conviction stemming from several murders for which he was acquitted.

Assistant U.S. attorney James McDonald has asked Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan to deny the 69-year-old mobster's latest request for a compassionate release because he doesn't deserve it, and most importantly, because the judge does not have the legal right to grant the gangster's motion for a compassionate release.

In a court filing which is partially sealed, the prosecutor did not mention whether or not Gioeli's current medical prognosis was terminal. During a court session last month, Cogan, who has denied repeated requests for compassion by Tommy Shots, indicated that would be an important fact that could lead the judge to grant him a compassionate release.

At his sentencing for his 2012 racketeering conviction, Cogan cited Gioeli's ill health in giving the former family street boss 224 months in prison, 16 months less than the 20 years he faced even though the judge found that Tommy Shots had been involved in the murders of Colombo wiseguy William (Wild Bill) Cutolo and gangster Richard Greaves.

Judge Brian CoganBut in March, Cogan denied his motion for release. The judge found that Gioeli had not expressed any remorse for his criminal ways, and ruled that, despite his many ailments, including cancer, his "crimes were so heinous and the nature of his leardership role (in the Colombo family) was so dangerous that release would not be appropriate."

In his court filing Monday, McDonald wrote that since Gioeli had appealed that ruling in April to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, Cogan "lacks jurisdiction" to grant Gioeli's latest motion for release since the appeal of the judge's March ruling is still pending before the federal appeals court.

In addition, the prosecutor wrote, the mobster's latest motion before Cogan "fails to set forth any evidence that was overlooked or unaddressed in the March 22 decision" by Judge Cogan.

Gioeli's lawyer has not replied to the government's court papers and did not respond to Gang Land calls for comment about the matter.

Tommy Shots, whose mandatory release date is in May of next year, will be eligible for placement in a halfway house in November. Over his objection, he was recently transferred by the Bureau of Prisons from the nearby federal prison in Danbury for treatment at the federal prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina. That's a place that many people never come home from.

[Little_Al1991]

Gioeli’s indictment and the events that followed, makes Gioeli’s case one of the most intriguing cases within recent years

[Dapper_Don]

Gioeli’s indictment and the events that followed, makes Gioeli’s case one of the most intriguing cases within recent years

agreed

[JohnnyS]

Thanks for the post!

[Amershire_Ed]

Thanks for posting

[AntComello]

Thanks for posting

[slimshady_007]

I think its bizarre how prosecutors make Tommy Shots out to be some Nicky Scarfo- type mafia boss. He ran the Colombo’s from 2004-2008, and he didn’t authorize a single murder during that time. I truly dont think he would be a threat to society if he was released a little early. Thanks for the post.

[Dave65827]

I mean he did murder 8 people including a nun

[Waingro]

Thanks for posting.

[Southshore88]

Thanks for posting

[Ryan98366]

I think its bizarre how prosecutors make Tommy Shots out to be some Nicky Scarfo- type mafia boss. He ran the Colombo’s from 2004-2008, and he didn’t authorize a single murder during that time. I truly dont think he would be a threat to society if he was released a little early. Thanks for the post.

Well put. I agree that the feds have a hard on for this guy. He seems like an unhealthy slob to me, he should be let out.

[newera_212]

Thank you for posting. This wasn't a bad article this week (outside of the filler story about the Judge) - but that's only because I hadn't really been following the Sally Daz story at all, just kinda said wow what a scumbag and forgot about it. It's wild the guy had attempts on his life for the better part of a year, especially around Christmas, and his son was gaslighting him saying it was random black guys mugging old men in the Bronx lmao. Jesus

[Ivan]

Thank you for posting. This wasn't a bad article this week (outside of the filler story about the Judge) - but that's only because I hadn't really been following the Sally Daz story at all, just kinda said wow what a scumbag and forgot about it. It's wild the guy had attempts on his life for the better part of a year, especially around Christmas, and his son was gaslighting him saying it was random black guys mugging old men in the Bronx lmao. Jesus

Said this before, but there has to have been something really weird and fucked up going on in that family beyond just wanting his dad dead for the money.

[jimmi_beans8]

agreed!