Bumbling hitman testifies about multiple murder attempts on mob associate
They’re not Murder Inc.
A bumbling would-be assassin described a series of botched hits against a New York mob associate during testimony in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday.
The failed triggerman, Ron Cabey, took the stand as a cooperating witness in the murder-for-hire case against Anthony Zottola, who is accused of enlisting two Bloods gang member to kill his dad Sylvester “Sally Daz” Zottola.
Cabey told jurors he agreed to kill the elder Zottola — — a reputed associate of the Bonanno and Lucchese crime families — for $10,000, touching off a series of bloopers that culminated with his arrest in 2018.
The family patriarch was ultimately fatally shot by another crook on Oct. 4, 2018 while waiting for a cup of takeout coffee at a drive-thru McDonald’s restaurant window in The Bronx.
But Cabey had tried — and failed — to rub out Sally Daz and his older son, Salvatore Zottola, at least six times, with four separate getaway drivers, earlier in 2018, he testified.
The stoolie told jurors he got roped into the murder plot through a meeting with a Bloods gang leader named Bushawn Shelton soon after he was released from jail in a separate case.
Noting he “wasn’t comfortable with his driving skills,” Cabey said he requested Shelton hook him up with a getaway driver and a pistol to carry out the murders in The Bronx.
In one would-be attempt on Salvatore, Cabey met with a driver – a Bloods gang member named “Dot” – in Brooklyn to set up for the shooting and wipe down the gun he planned to use, he testified.
When the pair walked out of the Dot’s Bedford-Stuyvesant house, they were immediately noticed and pursued by undercover police officers in a car, he testified.
Cabey threw his gun under a parked car and ran off — but Dot was arrested by the cops, he told jurors. Dot beat the case at the grand jury stage, Cabey said on the stand.
In a second attempt with Dot, the pair loaded into a “horrible tan van” that was “a piece of junk” and drove to the Locust Point neighborhood where Salvatore lived.
Shelton planned to meet them there to give Cabey a hunting knife – and the blundering duo smoked pot in the van as they waited for the Bloods gangbanger.
A stoned Cabey then set off to kill Salvatore – but got spooked away when he thought someone at the house noticed him enter the wrong combination on a keypad to get into the home.
In a final June 12, 2018 attempt, Cabey rode with defendant Himen Ross to one of Sylvester Zottola’s properties in the Bronx and finally got family patriarch in his gun sights.
As he approached Sylvester on the street, the aging mobster shouted, “don’t come any closer!” Cabey told jurors.
Sylvester then pulled his own pistol and fired at least one shot at Cabey, he said. Cabey tried to return fire, but his gun jammed, he testified.
Police arrested Cabey later that day when they tried to pull over the car he and Ross were driving in, he said.
Prosecutors allege the plot to kill Sally Daz was hatched by his son, Anthony, who wanted control over his father’s sprawling real estate empire.
Anthony’s brother Salvatore Zotolla survived a brazen, daylight hit attempt outside of his house in Locust Point.
https://nypost.com/2022/09/13/would-be-hitman-describes-series-of-botched-hits-on-zottolas/
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