Mobster ‘was a good family man,’ court hears

Mobster Rocco Zito’s daughter still loved him, even though he called her useless and sometimes hit another daughter with his cane, court heard Tuesday.

“My father was a good family man,” Zito’s daughter, Laura Scopelliti, testified in University Ave. court.

Her former husband, Domenico (Mimmo) Scopelliti, 54, is charged with murder, accused of shooting Zito, 87, dead in his family home on Jan. 29, 2016.

Zito was considered by police “a figure of significant power and authority within organized crime, specifically the Italian Mafia,” a joint statement from the defence and Crown says.

Despite that, Laura Scopelliti said her father was a loving dad, most of the time.

“He wasn’t like that,” she said. “He was nice to us.”

“He called you useless sometimes?” asked defence lawyer Brian Ross.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Maybe … he did it to everyone. … You just let it slide. It’s life.”

Laura and Domenico Scopelliti divorced after Zito’s death.

On the final days of Zito’s life, she said Domenico Scopelliti ordered her to stay in their basement apartment and not communicate with her parents.

She said she saw her then-husband fire a shot up from the basement toward her father at the top of the stairs. Shortly after that she heard three more shots and shouting. She said she rushed upstairs, to see her father lying on the floor.

She said her then-husband was nowhere to be seen by the time she got up the stairs.

“You heard your sister pleading with him (Domenico Scopelliti) to leave?” Ross asked.

“Yes,” she replied.