Global Courant 2023-04-16 21:08:11
The shooting occurred at the drive-thru lane of a McDonald’s at 1625 Webster Avenue in the Bronx on October 4, 2018, killing Sylvester Zottola.Nina Cochran/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
A man was sentenced to life in prison for murder-for-hire to kill his father, who had ties to the mafia.
Sylvester Zottola was killed in 2018 at a McDonald’s drive-thru.
The judge concluded Friday that the motive of Anthony Zottola Sr. revolved around greed.
A man was sentenced to life in prison on Friday after he hired a hit man to kill his mob-affiliated father at a McDonald’s drive-thru in 2018.
Anthony Zottola, Sr. and Himen Ross were both convicted Friday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn for their roles in a “murder-for-rent” plot, which was part of a plan to take over a multimillion-dollar property. estate company.
Zottola’s father, 71-year-old Sylvester Zottola, was killed by Ross at a McDonald’s drive-thru while waiting for a cup of coffee, according to according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office.
“Over the course of more than a year, the elderly victim, Sylvester Zottola, was stalked, beaten and stabbed without knowing who orchestrated the attacks,” said Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“It was his own son who was so determined to take control of the family’s lucrative real estate business that he hired a gang of hitmen to kill his father.”
Zottola’s father, according to authorities, ran a real estate empire worth tens of millions of dollars at the time of his death.
Zottola helped manage the company that prosecutors say was built on illegal gambling proceeds linked to the Mafia. according to the Associated Press.
Zottola was an associate of the Lucchese and Bonanno crime family in the Bronx and was nicknamed “Sally Daz,” prosecutors previously said. per CNN.
On October 4, 2018, a shooting occurred at the drive-thru lane of a McDonald’s in the Bronx, killing mobster Sylvester Zottola.Nina Cochran/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
The Associated Press reported that there were “audible sobs” in the courtroom as Zottola’s family spoke to him.
Salvatore Zottola, the defendant’s brother, asked, “Why? Daddy gave you everything. You had everything in life.”
Anthony Zottola Sr. plotted to kill both his brother and father in an attempt to take over the lucrative family business.
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In a failed attempt to have his brother killed in 2018, a gunman shot Salvatore Zottola in the head, chest and hand outside his home, prosecutors said.
Anthony Zottola had also staged a series of violent attacks against his father before he was finally killed, including one day in December 2017 when a gang broke into Sylvester Zottola’s home, “hit him on the head with a gun, stabbed him multiple times and hit him. his throat,” the press release said.
U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez concluded, according to the AP, that his motive was centered on greed. Zottola showed little remorse for “the unimaginable horror he inflicted on his family,” Gonzalez said.
Six other men have pleaded guilty to their role in the plot.
Read the original article Insider
