Mob trial in chaos as defense attorneys and turncoat mobster get into shouting match
The wheels came off the murder trial of former gangsters
Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme and Paul Weadick yesterday as the first
of 18 jurors dropped out and the judge recessed early in order to
silence a round robin of barb-slinging by the trial teams and mafia capo
Robert “Bobby” DeLuca.
DeLuca, 72, whose future freedom may rest on his ability to help the government nail Salemme and Weadick for the 1993 hit on nightclub owner Steven DiSarro, snapped after nearly four hours of needling and cross-examination by the defense.
“I’m not going to read nothin,’ ” a petulant DeLuca shouted at Weadick attorney Mark Shea after Shea, who was pressing him to authenticate evidence from a 2017 Rhode Island grand jury and told the mobster, “You’re going to sit there and read this.”
U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs pulled the plug on the proceeding when Shea remarked it appeared he and DeLuca were “stuck” and assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr. shot to his feet and retorted, “The only one who’s stuck is Mr. Shea.”
Burroughs commanded the lawyers to join her at sidebar, which led to more raised voices and the recess. She had announced earlier in the day one juror would not be returning, but did not say why.
DeLuca and convicted serial killer Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi — whose highly anticipated first public appearance in five years is expected next week — are the only witnesses who can put Salemme, 84, and Weadick, 63, at the scene of the murder.
Flemmi, 83, the partner of Salemme’s rival James “Whitey” Bulger, will tell jurors he walked into the Sharon home of Salemme’s ex-wife just as Frank Salemme Jr. was strangling DiSarro as his father watched and Weadick held the thrashing man’s legs.
DeLuca, the footman Salemme entrusted to dispose of DiSarro’s body in Providence, testified, “I didn’t want to be involved in it.” But he was, roping his older brother Joseph in for good measure, because he feared the then-godfather of the New England La Cosa Nostra would have them both whacked for not following orders. “Of course we were going to get killed,” Robert DeLuca stressed.
DeLuca is facing up to 20 years in federal prison for his guilty pleas to obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the past about the killing of DiSarro, 43, who the Salemmes suspected was stealing from their silent investment in his rock-and-roll club, The Channel, and ratting them out to the FBI. Also hanging over his head is a concurrent 10-year sentence in Rhode Island for admitting he orchestrated the 1992 murder of mob enforcer Kevin Hanrahan. DeLuca testified yesterday he watched from a car as Hanrahan stepped out of a restaurant in Providence and was shot in the head at point-blank range. “Yeah, I seen it,” he muttered.
Though he prays for leniency from prosecutors every night, DeLuca lamented, “I know it’s not going to come through. I can’t hope for more.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2018/05/shouting_match_between_attorneys_ex_mob_boss_brings_quick_end_to_days
DeLuca, 72, whose future freedom may rest on his ability to help the government nail Salemme and Weadick for the 1993 hit on nightclub owner Steven DiSarro, snapped after nearly four hours of needling and cross-examination by the defense.
“I’m not going to read nothin,’ ” a petulant DeLuca shouted at Weadick attorney Mark Shea after Shea, who was pressing him to authenticate evidence from a 2017 Rhode Island grand jury and told the mobster, “You’re going to sit there and read this.”
U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs pulled the plug on the proceeding when Shea remarked it appeared he and DeLuca were “stuck” and assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr. shot to his feet and retorted, “The only one who’s stuck is Mr. Shea.”
Burroughs commanded the lawyers to join her at sidebar, which led to more raised voices and the recess. She had announced earlier in the day one juror would not be returning, but did not say why.
DeLuca and convicted serial killer Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi — whose highly anticipated first public appearance in five years is expected next week — are the only witnesses who can put Salemme, 84, and Weadick, 63, at the scene of the murder.
Flemmi, 83, the partner of Salemme’s rival James “Whitey” Bulger, will tell jurors he walked into the Sharon home of Salemme’s ex-wife just as Frank Salemme Jr. was strangling DiSarro as his father watched and Weadick held the thrashing man’s legs.
DeLuca, the footman Salemme entrusted to dispose of DiSarro’s body in Providence, testified, “I didn’t want to be involved in it.” But he was, roping his older brother Joseph in for good measure, because he feared the then-godfather of the New England La Cosa Nostra would have them both whacked for not following orders. “Of course we were going to get killed,” Robert DeLuca stressed.
DeLuca is facing up to 20 years in federal prison for his guilty pleas to obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the past about the killing of DiSarro, 43, who the Salemmes suspected was stealing from their silent investment in his rock-and-roll club, The Channel, and ratting them out to the FBI. Also hanging over his head is a concurrent 10-year sentence in Rhode Island for admitting he orchestrated the 1992 murder of mob enforcer Kevin Hanrahan. DeLuca testified yesterday he watched from a car as Hanrahan stepped out of a restaurant in Providence and was shot in the head at point-blank range. “Yeah, I seen it,” he muttered.
Though he prays for leniency from prosecutors every night, DeLuca lamented, “I know it’s not going to come through. I can’t hope for more.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2018/05/shouting_match_between_attorneys_ex_mob_boss_brings_quick_end_to_days
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