Killer was granted gun permit
Man known to police as connected to Mafia had many guns in his home
Convicted underworld killer Rocco Zito was granted a legal gun permit after he served prison time for shooting a man to death in a debt collection, court heard Thursday.
Zito’s gun permit was introduced as evidence in the murder trial of Zito’s former son-inlaw, Domenic Scopelliti, 54.
Scopelliti is charged with murder in the shooting death of Zito on Jan. 29, 2016, in the Playfair Ave. bungalow shared by nine members of the Zito and Scopelliti families near Caledonia Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W.
Zito pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1986 after shooting a man to death in a debt collection. Zito was sentenced to 4 1⁄ years in prison in 1986 for 2 the killing.
The agreed statement of facts in the Scopelliti case notes that Zito was considered by police throughout his adult life to be “a figure of significant power and authority within organized crime, specifically the Italian Mafia.”
A photo of Zito’s gun permit was introduced as evidence in Scopelliti’s murder trial. It ex- pired in July 2004 and did not give him permission to own pistols.
Zito’s gun collection has come up several times in the trial at the University Ave. courthouse, before Justice Faye McWatt.
A police search after Zito’s death found more than a half dozen firearms in his home, as well as ammunition for rifles and pistols and an illegal silencer for muzzling the sound of gunshots.
Zito’s gun collection that was seized by police immediately after his death included .22-calibre rifles, a double-barrelled shotgun and a pistol. There were trigger locks on some of the guns, blocking them from being accidentally fired. Some of the guns were stored in a locked gun cabinet. Another rifle hung from a hook in his en suite bathroom.
Zito’s daughter Laura Scopelliti testified that a pistol was discovered by her family in a bag on the main floor of the home after police completed their search.
She was Domenic Scopelliti’s wife at the time of Zito’s death. They have since divorced.
That handgun was quickly scooped up by his cousin, Frank Sergi, she said. Laura Scopelliti said Sergi left her home with the gun before she had the chance to pass it on to police.
“He left fast,” she said. “He left so fast I didn’t have a chance to even say anything.”
“You never saw this gun again, right?” asked Brian Ross, Domenic Scopelliti’s lawyer. “Right,” Laura Scopelliti said. Laura Scopelliti said she later approached Sergi to try to get the gun handed over to police investigators, but he told her: “Don’t worry about it. I took care of it … I broke it into pieces and got rid of it.”
“Your father had three handguns, right?” Ross asked.
“Maybe, I don’t remember,” she replied.
Ross asked her what family members discovered in the house after the initial police search.
“They had found one of your father’s handguns, but they were looking for the other ones?” Ross asked. “I suppose,” she replied. She said that she made a discovery after the police search while cleaning up the clothing of her former husband, whom she called “Mimmo.”
“I saw something in one of the jackets, in Mimmo’s jacket,” she said. “It was a bag that had bullets in it.”
She said she turned the bag of bullets over to Zito’s brother, Pasquale (Pat) Zito, shortly after that.
“I showed him the bag of bullets and gave them to him,” she said. “He (Pat Zito) said, ‘If you find anything, give it to me.’ ”
The trial continues.