Murder plot sentencing delayed
Six men pleaded guilty in early 2016
MONTREAL • A Superior Court judge expressed frustration Thursday after being informed lawyers involved in the sentencing of six men who admitted to being part of a plot to kill a Mafioso were again not ready to proceed.
Justice André Vincent was told at least twice this year that lawyers involved in the case would make joint recommendations on sentences for Vittorio Mirarchi, 39, Jack Simpson, 75, and four other men who were part of the plot to kill Salvatore Montagna, a Mafioso who was gunned down in Charlemagne, a town east of Montreal, on Nov. 24, 2011.
Lawyers gathered for what was scheduled to be a sentence hearing at the Laval courthouse Thursday, but after a long delay during which meetings were held outside the courtroom, Vincent was again asked to postpone the proceedings until next week.
Defence lawyer Dominique Shoofey advised the court that one of the accused has “a medical issue” Shoofey wants to verify before the man is sentenced. During previous hearings in February and June, Shoofey requested postponements because two of the men — Calogero Milioto, 46, and Pietro Magistrale, 65 — wanted to have cases pending against them at the Joliette courthouse transferred to Laval. The other two men who await their sentences are Steven Fracas, 33, and Steven D’Addario, 39.
“Next week will be the last time,” Vincent said.
He noted the six men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder on March 30, 2016. Joint recommendations on sentences “are usually done on the same day” an accused pleads guilty, he said.
Montagna was killed within the context of a bitter and bloody dispute with Raynald Desjardins and Mirarchi over who could take control of the Montreal Mafia from the Rizzuto organization. Both Montagna and Desjardins saw opportunity in how the Rizzuto organization had been left severely weakened by Project Colisée, a lengthy investigation led by the RCMP that resulted in the arrests of several Rizzuto organization leaders in 2006.
The organization had also been weakened by the absence of its leader, Vito Rizzuto, who was serving a lengthy sentence in the U.S. while Desjardins (a former close ally of Rizzuto) and Montagna tried to take control of rackets he used to profit from.
Desjardins and Mirarchi considered Montagna to be an outsider. Montagna acted as a leader of the Bonanno crime family in New York until American authorities sought to have him deported when they realized he was not a U.S. citizen. Montagna had the choice of being deported to Italy or Canada and chose Montreal.
The plot to murder Montagna was revealed to the RCMP during Project Clemenza, a drug trafficking probe that targeted Mirarchi and other alleged drug traffickers.
Two months before Montagna was killed, someone tried to kill Desjardins in Laval but failed. The text messages intercepted during Project Clemenza recorded how Desjardins, Mirarchi and the others automatically assumed the botched hit was ordered by Montagna. The text messages also revealed Desjardins and most of the other men participated in surveilling Montagna as he headed to Simpson’s home for what Montagna assumed would be a meeting to settle differences.
Text messages also revealed Desjardins and some of the other men helped Simpson hide in Ottawa and made plans to have him leave Canada. Simpson was arrested before he could sneak out of the country.
On Dec. 19, Desjardins was sentenced to a 14-year prison term for his leading role in the plot to kill Montagna.