Bronx ‘Sally Daz’ mob beats trial attorney over suspect’s text

A jury began deliberating the fate of a notorious Bronx gangster on Friday.His lawyers said frequent texts between his clients and the alleged contract killer suggested he suspected his own father. He said it wasn’t enough to prove he killed him.

But prosecutors said text messages between defendant Anthony Zottola and a gang member who pleaded guilty to a murder plot for hire were used to obliterate suspected mob boss Sylvester “Salidas” Zottola. said it constituted a “running conspiracy”.

The texts between Zottola and alleged gang member Bouchon Shelton discussed “actors,” “movies,” and “locker rooms,” which prosecutors said were part of the family that Zottola wanted murdered. Said it was the code.

“These are Anthony Zottola’s statements over the course of a year,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Bensing told jurors in closing arguments for the trial in Brooklyn federal court. “The text is a conspiracy in action.”

However, Zottra’s attorney, Henry Mazurek, called Shelton a “tsunami of criminals” who acted on their own.

“Take off the dirty lenses the government requires you to wear,” Mazurek said. “If Shelton had really been hired by Anthony Zottola to do this job, things would have been different.”

The jury was dismissed over the weekend without reaching a verdict.

Sylvester Zottola, 71, was executed while waiting for coffee at the wheel of his car At a McDonald’s drive-thru in the Bronx on October 4, 2018.

Prosecutors said the co-conspirators sent Shelton a one-word message after the shooting, “It’s done.”

Shelton then handed Zottola words meant to ask for his payment, along with what prosecutors called a coded message.

Prosecutors have accused Anthony Zottola of paying a Bloods gang leader to commit a year-long murder for hire to take over his father’s $45 million real estate business.

Sylvester Zottola was the subject of several unsuccessful murder attempts in the years before he was finally killed.

Prosecutor said “Sally Daz” survived 5 attacks.

Initially, Shelton tried to kill Sally Daz herself, prosecutors said.

On November 26, 2017, Shelton donned a ski mask, stopped behind the mob’s car at Edgewater Park near the Throgs Neck Expressway, got out, grabbed a gun, and started running towards him, according to sources. Prosecutors argue.

However, Sally Daz was too fast, reversed the car, and made a frantic U-turn to escape.

Shelton then sent waves of hired associates to carry out the deed, prosecutors said. claimed to be.

The gang’s fate was sealed on October 4, 2018, when he was murdered while waiting for coffee in the drive-thru window of a McDonald’s in the Bronx.

Officials said photographs showing $200,000 in cash were taken the day after the killing and were found on Shelton’s mobile phone.

If convicted, Zottra could face the death penalty.