Jury deliberates in murder trial of Bonanno mob boss Vincent (Vinny Gorgeous) Basciano
Undated surveillance photo of mob boss Vincent Basciano, also known as 'Vinny Gorgeous.'
The nearly four-week trial went to the jury Tuesday after Assistant U.S. Attorney Taryn Merkl slammed the murderous gangster for putting forth a "sideshow" defense.
Merkl said testimony that murder victim Randolph Pizzolo's "mouth got him into trouble"also applied to Basciano, who confessed on tape to ordering the hit.
"The defendant is now trying to talk his way out of his own big mouth," Merkl said in a final rebuttal argument.
Basciano's lawyer has argued that he was lying to Mafia chieftain Joseph Massino about giving the order to kill Pizzolo when he was secretly taped in prison.
The feds have charged Basciano with murder in aid of racketeering, which carries the penalties of death by lethal injection or life without the possibility of parole.
If Basciano is convicted, the jury would return next week for the penalty phase of the trial.
He is already serving a life term for the 2001 murder of Bronx junkie Frank Santoro and has been designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to serve the sentence at the supermaximum security facility in Florence, Colorado, where numerous convicted terrorists are warehoused.
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