Prosecution: The murder case against Paul Schiro
Victim Emil Vaci
Prosecutor Mitch Mars put the pieces together for jurors in the 1986 murder of Emil Vaci in Phoenix.
Now, they'll have to decide if they form a convincing picture.
Vaci, 72, was killed by the Chicago Outfit because he was going to testify before a federal grand jury about a slots cheat, Jay Vandermark, who was overseeing the Outfit skim on slots at a few casinos but ripped off the mob for millions of dollars.
Outfit killer Nick Calabrese, a star witness for the government, said he and another mob hitman, Joseph Hansen, parked a light blue cargo van next to Vaci's car in the parking lot of the restaurant where Vaci worked.
Calabrese had the van side door slightly open, and when Vaci went to get into his car after getting off work, Calabrese pounced. He and Hansen, who was driving the van, pulled Vaci inside.
As Vaci pleaded for his life, Calabrese shot him in the head several times. Calabrese and Hansen dumped the body in a canal.
The problem the prosecution has is that Calabrese is the only person linking Schiro to the murder.
But Mars went over Calabrese's testimony detail by detail and tried to show how various pieces were confirmed by other testimony in the case.
Nick Calabrese didn't know much about why he was going out to Phoenix to kill Vaci, but he knew that Vaci was supposed to testify before a grand jury about someone who skimmed money and ran away.
Court testimony from the prosecutor running that grand jury confirmed that was the topic. Tesitmony from the former lead investigator from the Nevada Gaming Commission gave jurors more details on Vandermark.
Nick Calabrese testified one of his mob superiors, James LaPietra, told him that Vaci could hurt him in his testimony.
The prosecutor running the grand jury confirmed that LaPietra's name came up, as did a photograph of Schiro.
When Nicholas Calabrese got to Phoenix, he meets alleged mob killing machine Frank Schweihs, hitman John Fecarotta and a third man, nicknamed "Porky," whose real name is Fred Pordyla.
Reputed mob boss James Marcello made clear in secretly recorded conversations he had with his half-brother in 2003 that Marcello knew who Pordyla was. Marcello showed interest when his half-brother, Michael, told him that Pordyla got a grand jury subponea.
Why should we care?
The prosecution contends that because Prodyla was once involved out in the Vaci matter in Phoenix, he could hurt Marcello.
Marcello, for instance, gave explosives to Nick Calabrese to use in Phoenix.
Outfit burglar and a longtime friend of Schiro's, Rick Cleary, confirmed that Schiro knew Vaci and worked with him in at least one business venture.
Vaci's stepdaughter testified that Vaci knew Schiro from a Phoenix hotel Vaci once ran.
The stepdaughter also confirmed that her mother had a dress shop.
The jurors may can about this because in his testimony, Nick Calabrese said the killers had once planned to shoot Vaci in his wife's dress store.
Calabrese also said the hit team was at one point sent back to Chicago by a man named John Reda.
Cleary, Schiro's longtime friend, said Schiro told him that Schiro knew Reda and Reda was holding guns, silencers and work vehicles to be used in the hit for Schiro, Nick Calabrese, Joseph Hansen and "the German," aka Frank Schweihs.
So, Calabrese confirms a man named John Reda was involved in support for the hit, and Cleary makes clear that Schiro knew the man too and what his role was.
Nick Calabrese is tied to John Fecarotta during the time and rough location of the Vaci murder. Calabrese signed a gambling form for Fecarotta when he won in the casino.
Nick Calabrese said Schweihs stole a work car for the Vaci hit from a car dealership.
Records show a 1986 silver Pontiac Grand Prix was stolen from a dealership on March 26, 1986.
The cars' tires were slashed when it was parked in the restaurant lot, and police back then did recover the vandalized car.
A woman testified a trial that she recalled seeing a light blue van, in the parking lot, the night Vaci was grabbed.
Nick Calabrese dropped a .38-caliber pistol in the tarp in which Vaci was dumped.
Police found the gun after they discovered Vaci's body.
When Nick Calabrese's cooperation hit the papers, Cleary asked his friend Schiro if Calabrese could do Schiro any harm.
"Calabrese could put me away forever," Schiro replied, according to Cleary.
As for the defense claims that Calabrese made up Schiro's involvement to curry favor, Mars asked why Calabrese wouldn't have said Schiro actually pulled the trigger or why Calabrese wouldn't have involved two more prominent defendants, Frank Calabrese Sr. or Marcello - if he wanted to score points.
Comments
There is no real case against Schiro. The fact that this charge made it to trial proved to me the system is a total farce.
When the government wants you gone, the facts and the law dont matter really.
What was the real evidence?
That Nick Calabrese, career outfit journeyman and loser, confessed killer & lifelong criminal said so after the FEDS had DNA evidence linking him to a murder scene?
What if Nick accused my uncle carmine of putting too many hot peppers in his BEEF leading to an ulcer.
Would that have led to a BATTERY and ASSAULT charge?
IF bill roemer, or johnny basset were still the SAC of the FBI office, they would have never condoned the BS charge on Lombardo, at his age, at this stage of the game, and for a guy who has remaineved anonymous and inactive.
But the days of the FEDS handling their affairs with Honor and fairness are long over.
And whats the difference? If the jury was hung on Lumby's charges, theyd retry and keep em in jail. If they acquitted him, cook county would announce an even lamer murder charge of the Seifert murder and rearrest him. Either way, they re going to spend their manpower and resources and money making sure the 78 yr old dies in jail. Congratlations. you have done society a great favor.
All this while, people shoot each other randomly in our inner city streets easier than they breathe, while punks run seamless multi-million dollar drug rings from 2 dozen city intersections everyday, while you got ten thousand pedophiles roaming the internet looking for their next SCORE, and while you got a remote few whacked out fanatical crews looking to blow up something in this country to cause as much havoc and pain as possible. Thanks FBI. thanks Mr Fitzgerald.....for absolutely nothing.
Posted by: JIMMY CHAGRA hits backdoor flush | August 31, 2007 11:22 PM
If they get a conviction out of this I will lose all faith in the justce system, what little i have left.
There is nothing linking Schiro to this murder except one killer's testimony, who by the way seems to have a fuzzy memory based on his recollection of the Spilotro killings.
I hope the jury can see through the desperate acts of the prosecution - they are grasping at straws.
To me they're more criminal than some of the people they put on trial because the can portray themselves as servants to the people when indeed they're self serving in many cases..
Posted by: anonymous | September 3, 2007 05:03 PM