NEW YORK (AP) — A New York man will spend the rest of his life in prison after hiring a hit man to kill his father, a suspected mob associate shot to death at a McDonald’s drive-through in what prosecutors called it a scheme to control a real-estate empire built on mob money.
Anthony Zottola Sr. wiped away tears at sentencing Friday in US District Court in Brooklyn. Audible sobs filled the courtroom as his sister and brother spoke to him, the culmination of a harrowing family drama the judge said was hard to fathom.
Filled with emotion, his sister Deborah Ann Zottola spoke fondly of her brother even as she spoke of the pain of losing their father.
“I won’t dig you a deeper grave. I will continue to pray for you…but pray for me,” she said, lamenting that Friday would be the last time she would be in the same room with both brothers.
Last fall, a jury found Zottola and an accomplice, Hymen Ross, guilty in a murder-for-hire plot that prosecutors say went awry multiple times before ultimately leading to the death of the victim, Sylvester Zottola, of 71 years.
The first attack occurred in September 2017, when a stranger punched the then-70-year-old man to the face outside his home in the Bronx. Two months later, a gunman shot Sylvester Zottola while he was driving on a freeway. In late December of that same year, three men broke into his home and hit him over the head with a pistol, stabbed him repeatedly, and slit his throat. He survive.
The following October, he was shot to death by Ross in a drive-thru McDonald’s in the Bronx while waiting for a cup of coffee.
Prosecutors said Anthony Zottola Sr. also unsuccessfully tried to have his brother, Salvatore, killed.
In July 2018, a gunman shot Salvatore Zottola in the head, chest, and hand outside his home. He survive.
In court, Salvatore Zottola fought back tears.
«Because?» she asked her brother from across the room. “Dad gave you everything. You had everything in life.
The judge also tried to understand the motive and concluded that it was about greed and financial gain.
«There was a lot to talk about… The defendant wanted more than that,» said US District Judge Hector Gonzalez, adding that Zottola showed little remorse for «the unimaginable horror he caused his family.»
Zottola spoke briefly before the judge handed down his sentence, telling the court how much he missed his wife and three children.
Authorities said Anthony Zottola Sr. managed properties for his father’s real estate business, which consisted of multi-family rental properties valued in the tens of millions of dollars. Prosecutors alleged that the business was based on profits from illegal gambling connected to the mob.
“Over the course of more than a year, the elderly victim, Sylvester Zottola, was harassed, beaten and stabbed, not knowing who orchestrated the attacks. It was his own son, who was so intent on controlling the family’s lucrative real estate business, that he hired a gang of hitmen to murder his father,» U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said after sentence.
In addition to the mandatory life sentences, Zottola and Ross were each sentenced to an additional 112 years, representing the combined ages of their father, 71, and brother, 41, when they were shot.
Six other men have pleaded guilty to their part in the murder-for-hire scheme. Four of the men were sentenced to prison terms of between 16 and 20 years. Two others are awaiting sentencing.