FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A jury began deliberations Thursday on whether to recommend life in prison or the death penalty for Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello in the mob-connected 2001 slaying of a prominent South Florida businessman during a battle over control of a fleet of gambling ships.
The jury’s recommendation will be made to Broward County Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes, who will make the final sentencing decision and must give “great weight” to the jury’s advice.
Moscatiello, 76, was convicted in July of murder and murder conspiracy in the fatal shooting of Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis during a dispute over lucrative gambling ships. Trial evidence showed Boulis was shot by a hit man hired by Moscatiello, a reputed member of New York’s Gambino crime family once headed by “Teflon Don” John Gotti.
Co-defendant Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari was previously convicted and is serving a life sentence. A third conspirator, James “Pudgy” Fiorillo, pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors after serving more than six years behind bars.
Boulis, 51, was slain on Feb. 6, 2001, during a struggle for control of the SunCruz Casinos fleet, which he had sold to businessman Adam Kidan and his partner, former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Kidan was paying Moscatiello and Ferrari thousands of dollars each month to handle security and other services — payments that would end if Boulis regained control.
Assistant State Attorney Brian Cavanagh urged jurors in a closing argument to recommend the death penalty for a crime he called a cold-blooded murder orchestrated by Moscatiello to protect his SunCruz profits.
“Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello commissioned an execution, an assassination of Gus Boulis,” Cavanagh said. “He did it not for vengeance, not for passion, not by accident or misfortune, not some sort of self-defense. He did it for money.”
Moscatiello attorney Sam Halpern, however, told jurors that the death penalty should be reserved for the worst killers — terrorists, serial killers, those who slay children — and that Moscatiello would be punished enough by living out his days behind prison walls with no chance of parole.
“Mr. Moscatiello is never going to walk out of prison, ever,” Halpern said. “It’s not like he’s getting a slap on the wrist.”
Boulis, who also founded the Miami Subs restaurant chain, was fatally shot by hit man John “J.J.” Gurino as he sat in his car in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Cars blocked Boulis in from front and back, with Gurino firing the fatal shots from a black Mustang that pulled up to the driver’s side. Gurino was later killed in a dispute with a Boca Raton delicatessen owner.
Abramoff and Kidan were never charged in the Boulis killing. Both did serve federal prison sentences after pleading guilty to fraud in the $147.5 million SunCruz purchase. Abramoff also was the main figure in a Washington corruption scandal that resulted in charges against 21 people.
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