A New York man was convicted Wednesday of orchestrating the homicide of his father in what prosecutors stated was a plot to take over the older man’s profitable actual property empire.
A federal jury discovered Anthony Zottola Sr. and an affiliate responsible of conspiracy and murder-for-hire within the October 2018 killing of 71-year-old Sylvester Zottola, who was shot was he waited to select up a cup of espresso at a McDonald’s drive-thru within the Bronx. Anthony Zottola additionally tried unsuccessfully to have his brother, Salvatore Zottola, killed, in line with prosecutors.
Each males face obligatory life phrases after the responsible verdict within the six-week trial.
The killing of Sylvester Zottola culminated what prosecutors stated was a yearlong sequence of bungled makes an attempt by employed killers to rub out each him and Salvatore Zottola, on the behest of Anthony Zottola.
Sylvester Zottola was threatened by a masked gunman in late 2017 and later survived being stabbed and having his throat slashed. Salvatore Zottola was shot within the head, chest and hand in entrance of his residence however survived, in line with prosecutors.
Himen Ross, who was convicted Wednesday on the identical counts as Anthony Zottola, tailed the elder Zottola to the McDonald’s with the assistance of a monitoring machine positioned in his automotive and shot him a number of occasions, in line with the U.S. legal professional’s workplace.
5 different defendants have pleaded responsible, together with Bushawn Shelton, who prosecutors alleged was employed by Anthony Zottola after which engaged Ross to hold out the hit. One other man, Alfred Lopez, was acquitted on all counts Wednesday.
Anthony Zottola, 44, of Larchmont, helped handle properties for his father’s actual property enterprise, which consisted of multi-family rental properties valued within the tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. Prosecutors alleged the enterprise was constructed on unlawful playing proceeds related to the mob.
“Over the course of greater than a yr, the aged sufferer, Sylvester Zottola, was stalked, crushed, and stabbed, by no means figuring out who orchestrated the assaults,” U.S. Legal professional Breon Peace stated Wednesday. “It was his personal son, who was so decided to regulate the household’s profitable actual property enterprise that he employed a gang of hit males to homicide his father.”
