Not gonna rat!
Mob big refuses to burn Gotti grandkid in arson case
IF HE ENDS up dying behind bars, Bonanno family oldfella Vincent Asaro won’t take anybody down with him.
Mob veteran Asaro, 82, informed a federal judge that he was no rat before she accepted his guilty plea Tuesday for ordering the April 2012 road rage torching of a Queens man’s car.
“I would never cooperate . . . I would never cooperate against anyone,” the capo declared during a Brooklyn Federal Court hearing.
Asaro was the first defendant of the day before late Gambino boss John Gotti’s 23-year-old grandson admitted driving the getaway car from the arson blaze ordered by the mob vet. The octogenarian gangster, his arms folded across his chest, insisted he never knew or met the person who actually set the fire.
Asaro acknowledged only making a phone call to order up the attack.
“Another person burned a car at my request,” Asaro declared during his appearance. “I made arrangements with this person to take care of it, and it was done.”
Depending on his sentence, Asaro — once charged as part of the robbery gang featured in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” — may already have breathed his last as a free man.
Both Asaro, held without bail, and the Gotti grandson faced up to 20 years in prison, but defense lawyers were hopeful for lesser terms at their Oct. 24 sentencing.
A long term would almost insure that Asaro dies behind bars.
“We’re hoping for a fair and just sentence that not only takes into account his crimes committed, but also factors in his age and health,” said Asaro defense lawyer Elizabeth Macedonio.
Asaro beat charges in 2015 for the infamous $6 million Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport. The 1978 heist became a centerpiece of the Scorsese mob classic.
The young Gotti — with his dad Peter in the courtroom — confessed his role in the arson. Gotti is already serving a term of eight years for his conviction for running a $1.6 million oxycodone ring in his Howard Beach neighborhood.
“I agreed with others to set fire to a vehicle in Broad Channel, Queens,” said Gotti, wearing a navy blue prison outfit. “My role was to drive the getaway car.”
Asaro made it clear that his long-ago oath of omerta remained in effect when asked by Federal Judge Allyne Ross if he wanted to change lawyers.
Macedonio represents Asaro’s nephew in a separate case, raising conflict-of-interest issues. Ross said the dual representation could prevent Asaro from cutting a deal to testify against his nephew.
Asaro, after a four-minute meeting with the lawyer, said he both planned to keep her around and his mouth shut.