No new trial for alleged mob gunman in Curtis Sliwa shooting: judge

No new trial for alleged mob gunman in Curtis Sliwa shooting: judge

  March 14, 2011    Dapper_Don

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Junior GottiThe mob gunman who allegedly tried to silence radio talker Curtis Sliwa was firing blanks when he tried to shoot down his racketeering conviction.
A judge today rejected claims from reputed Gambino crime-family associate Michael Yannotti that his mouthpiece failed him during his 2005 trial alongside Mafia scion John "Junior" Gotti.
Manhattan federal Judge Shira Scheindlin said defense lawyer Diarmuid White's admission that he didn't know Yannotti could be convicted of conspiracy for crimes "in which he did not participate" wasn't enough to warrant a new trial.

"Contrary to (Yannotti's) assertion, the fact that members of the enterprise routinely attempted to conceal their criminal activity from one another does not mean that such criminal activity was not foreseeable," Scheindlin wrote.
"Consequently, such an argument was not reasonably likely to succeed."
At his trial, jurors convicted Yannotti of racketeering, but cleared him of charges he opened fire on Sliwa in the back of a stolen taxi in 1992 for bad-mouthing Gotti's late father, "Dapper Don" John Gotti.
Scheindlin, however, said evidence suggested Yannotti was the shooter and sentenced him to 20 years in the slammer.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/shooting_new_trial_for_alleged_mob_lqSFbp4N3ZhWjkuko71ydL#ixzz1Gc9jvJfK