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Bonanno Family associate Cicale testifies - 3

Part 3 of Stefan Cicale's Oct. 14, 2008, testimony in the racketeering and murder trial of Joseph Young is shown below.

Kreischer mansion

United States of America v.
Joseph Young, defendant

Page 3 of 3

District Judge Allyne R. Ross

United States District Court,
Eastern District of New York
Brooklyn, N.Y.,
October 14, 2008

 

Prosecuting attorneys:

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Winston Y. Chan, Jack Dennehy, William Schaeffer

Defense attorney:

Robert Soloway


(The witness, Stefan Cicale, resumes the stand at this time.)

(The jury enters the courtroom at 2:30 p.m.)

THE COURT: Mr. Chan.

MR. CHAN: Thank you, Your Honor.

Q. Mr. Cicale, before the lunch break we were talking about the furnace. You were describing what the furnace looked like. Besides Mr. McKelvey's body going to the furnace, did anything else go in there?

A. Yes.

Q. What was that?

A. All of the knives and the tools, used wood, the shutters, and the things in the kitchen, mattress, things like that.

Q. Who was it that was in charge of the furnace?

A. I guess Joe was down there the most putting stuff in the furnace.

Q. Did you help?

A. Yes.

Q. What did you help with?

A. I helped break the wood from the shutter. Just helped him put things in there.

Q. What about the clothes that he wore?

A. Yes.

Q. Where did that go?

A. Also in the furnace.

Q. Whose jacket were you wearing that night?

A. I was wearing a flannel jacket that Gino had gave me.

Q. Did you ever talk to Gino Galestro about that after the fact?

A. Yes.

Q. What did you say to him?

A. I told him that even though he was not there, I was wearing his jacket like he was there.

Q. What did he say?
MR. SOLOWAY: Objection?
THE COURT: Overruled.

A. He said that -- pretty much just shrugged it off. He really didn't pay that much attention to it.

Q. You were describing before that the defendant had used a metal pole to move the pieces around in the furnace. What happened to the pole that night?

A. That night it was just pushed in the basement, just out of the way, and it was left up to Joe to dispose of it.

Q. Why was it left to Joe?

A. We didn't know what to do with it. Joe said he would get rid of it.

Q. After the furnace, after you were dealing with the furnace, did you clean the kitchen?

A. Yes.

Q. Who participated in that and what did you do?

A. Pretty much just me and Jose mopped the floors and bagged up pretty much most of the contents of the kitchen, all of the stuff that was laying around, boxes, cups, try, dishes, just anything laying around we bagged it up and put the bags outside.

Q. Why did you bag up all of that stuff?

A. Just in case there was anything on them that would be leaning towards that crime.

Q. Was the area in the basement around the furnace cleaned, too?

A. Yes.

Q. Who did that?

A. Joe.

Q. What did he do?

A. He had poured some acid around the furniture, a type of acid.

Q. How long did you continue working through the night?

A. Pretty much till morning the next day.

Q. What happened then?

A. Sonny had to take his kids to school, so he was leaving to take the kids to school. I told him to take me with them, that I didn't want to stay in the house.

Q. Did you go with them?

A. Yes.

Q. Where did you go?

A. He dropped me off at my apartment.

Q. What did you do there?

A. Just took a shower, laid down for a while.

The Next Morning

Q. Approximately what time did you get back at your place?

A. Must have been sometime early in the morning.

Q. When you got back to your apartment, what was the situation with your truck?

A. My truck was back at my apartment.

Q. Who had borrowed it?

A. Gino, the night before.

Q. What did you do after you showered?

A. I showered, got dressed, and went to get coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.

Q. Then what?

A. Went back to the Mansion to bring Joe and Jose some coffee. I grabbed a hold of the bags from outside and put them in the back of my truck.

Q. What happened when you got the Mansion?

A. Joe and Jose were sleeping on the couch upstairs, were playing games earlier that day, and I woke them up and gave them the coffee.

Q. What did you tell them when you woke them up?

A. Told them that they really shouldn't be sleeping right now. That after what had just happened, they shouldn't be sleeping, they should be looking around and doing stuff like that.

Q. What did they say?

A. They said, all right. They got up and started.

Q. What did you do?

A. I told them I was going to get rid of the bags, had them loaded up in my truck. I said I'm leaving, bringing the bags to the garbage men to take them.

Q. Did you do that?

A. Yes.

Q. Where did you go?

A. I drove back to my place.

Q. With what?

A. With the garbage bags in the back of my pickup truck.

Q. What did you do at your place with the trash?

A. Put the garbage bags outside of my apartment.

Q. Approximately how many bags of trash was it?

A. Maybe about 15 or 20 bags.

Q. How long did you wait?

A. I sat in the car for a while and waited for the garbage men, but they hadn't come. Then Sonny had showed up and we sat in his car and waited for a while, and he was like, don't worry about it, they are just bags of garbage, they will take them, and we left.

Q. Where did you go after you left?

A. Went back to the Mansion.

Q. What did you do at the Mansion?

A. Just talked with Joe and Jose.

Q. What was the situation there with the cleanup?

A. We just pretty much went over everything and just looking around to make sure that the place was cleaned up.

Q. What was the situation with the furnace?

A. The furnace was still going, still parts in the furnace.

Q. Did there come a time when everything that could be burned was burned in the furnace?

A. Yes.

Q. When was that?

A. That was the next day.

Q. Did you go back the next day?

A. Yes.

Ashes

Q. What happened when you went back the next day?

A. Everything had been burned and Joe had just finished cleaning the furnace. He had taken it apart and cleaned the inside of it.

Q. What did you do with the inside of it that was left on the inside?

A. It was a tray, like a small tray, and in the tray was ashes, teeth, and a small bone.

Q. What happened to that tray of ashes and teeth and bone?

A. In front of the Mansion when you come out the door, there's a little well outside. He opened the well and dumped it down the well.

Q. Who is he?

A. Joe.

Q. And the picture that is on the exhibit, Exhibit 38, where was that, where was the well?

A. When you come out of the house, it is on the right-hand side.

Q. Around here?

A. Yes. As you come down the stairs, it is to the right.

Q. Near the stairs?

A. Yes, I guess somewhere in the grass there.

Q. Did you also walk around the parameter of the house?

A. Yes.

Q. Why did you do that?

A. Sorry, can you repeat the question?

Q. Did you walk around the outside of the house, too?

A. Yes.

Q. Why did you do that?

A. Well, I just wanted to make sure everything was cleaned up and make sure the house was in order, that there wasn't anything that we missed lying around the place.

Q. Is there a reason -- did you feel responsible to take care of the cleanup?

A. Well, now that I was being involved, I felt a great responsibility on myself to protect myself, to try to, you know, cleanup the place as best I could.

Q. Did you feel you were more qualified to do it?
MR. SOLOWAY: Objection?
THE COURT: Sustained.

Q. Did you draw on any particular skills to do the cleanup?

A. I'm familiar with, you know, cleaning job sites, if that's what you mean. I cleaned job sites before, but other than just my background in construction, just to pay attention to detail, trying to look through the whole place for anything we might have missed.

Retracing the Steps

Q. When you went around the outside of the house -- when were you walking outside around the house, did anyone do that with you?

A. Yes.

Q. Who?

A. Mike, Joe Young and Jose.

Q. How did you know where specifically to look throughout the house, throughout the outside of the house?

A. Well, we looked inside and out. We started from where it happened. So I asked Joe just to walk me through everything that happened, take it step-by-step, this way I could visualize what happened and was walking my way through it, this way we can look around all of the areas that they were in.

Q. Did the defendant do that?

A. Yes.

Q. What did he say when he was doing that?

A. He went through it step-by-step. He said, all right, this is where it happened, this is where it started in the hallway, and then to the door. The glass in the door broke. We went down the stairs, the front stairs, then in the bushes area, like wood chips in the area were all messed up. Then to the pool. Then from the pool to the back shed. Then from the back shed to the side stairs. So we had a path, this way we could follow the path and retrace the steps.

Q. When he was describing to you what happened step-by-step, what did he say that he, himself, did?

A. He said that he jumped out of the shadow, the lights were out. Then when Bobby came in, he jumped out and he stabbed Bobby and he tried to choke him, but he broke free and eventually he tackled him in the bushes. There's a bush area there, and then drowned him in the pool.

Q. He being the defendant.

A. Yes.

Q. When you were looking outside of the Mansion, did you find anything?

A. Just the area by the bushes was disturbed, the wood chips were out of place, and I told Joe just to fix that and put that back together. The front steps and the side steps, there was blood on the steps, so we had to scrub the steps down. And there was some rocks, questionable sustained rocks, and we had thrown those as far as we could in the back of the house.

Cleaning Service

Q. Did you also talk to the defendant about hiring a professional cleaning service?

A. Yes.

Q. What did you discuss?

A. We discussed that we should get someone in there just to clean up. There's like a runner, a carpet in the hallway, just so that they could vacuum the carpets and clean the walls, and just clean the house, just clean everything.

Q. What did the defendant say he would do?

A. He said he would get somebody.

Q. Did that happen?

A. Yes.

Q. How do you know that?

A. He told me.

Q. Was there a problem with the cleaning service?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. Well, Mike -- Sonny was out of town and I was out of town, so after the lady had cleaned the place, there was a balance left unpaid, and he was at Fresca's one night and he had called me up and told me there was a guy there trying to collect the money for the cleaning lady and he wanted to take care of the situation maybe physically with the guy, or whatever he was planning on doing with him. I told him to put the guy on the phone. Once I talked to the guy on the phone I told him don't worry about it. Once Mike gets back, you'll get paid.

Q. Did you hear anything more about the cleaning service?

A. No.

Q. Do you know what cleaning service was used?

A. No.

Payment for Murder

Q. Did you also have discussions with the defendant after the murder about money?

A. Yes.

Q. What did he discuss with you?

A. At times he was upset that he didn't get paid what he was supposed to get paid.

Q. Did he tell you what he was supposed to get paid?

A. Yes.

Q. What?

A. I don't know. It was either 10 - or $8,000.a

Q. Did he tell you what he was supposed to get that 8 - or $10,000 for?

A. Yes.

Q. What did he say?

A. He said for killing Bobby, that's what he was supposed to get.

Q. Did he tell you who was supposed to pay him in particular?

A. The money was supposed to come from Gino, but he didn't tell me particularly if he was going to meet with him or how he was going to get the money, but..

Q. At the time that you helped dispose of the body, were you told that you would get money, too? After the murder, did you have a discussion with Gino Galestro?

A. Yes.

Q. Where did that discussion take place?

A. At Joe's of Avenue U.

Q. What is Joe's of Avenue U?

A. It is an eatery.

Q. When you met with him, were you alone, the two of you?

A. Yes.

...

Q. Was there a conversation that you had with someone else that led to that meeting?

A. Yes.

Q. Who did you talk to?

A. I spoke to -- actually, Jose had come in and spoke to me about it.

Q. What did he talk to you about?

A. He said that Joey Young was going around talking to people, I think it was a girl or somebody, about what happened, about the cleanup, about everything.

Q. So, what did you do when you heard that?

A. I went and I spoke to Sonny about it.

Q. What happened then? What happened during that discussion?

A. I told Sonny that Jose came to me, told me that Joe was talking about things he shouldn't have been talking about, and that I wanted to go over there and talk to Joe about it.

Q. What did Mike say?

A. Mike said that I'm not to go over there and talk to him.

Q. What did you do?

A. Mike said he would take care of it. But time had passed and Jose came back and he still was saying -- he's still talking about things, that's when I went to Gino.

Q. What did you tell Gino?

A. I told Gino that Joe was going around talking about certain things.

Q. What did he say?

A. He asked what he was talking about.

Q. What did you tell him?

A. I told him he was talking about the murder and the cleanup, and just everything about that.

Q. What did Galestro say to that?

A. He asked questions about that night, who was there, what everybody did, and, you know, just curious about some details about that night.

Q. Did you talk about the topic anymore?

A. Yes. I explained to him what happened, and I explained to him what everybody did, and he said he would take care of it.

Q. Do you know if anything more happened after that?

A. I'm not sure.

Q. Besides that discussion with Mr. Galestro, did you have another discussion with him about the murder?

A. I am drawing a blank right now.

Q. Did Mr. Galestro ever get angry at you?

A. Yes, he did.

Q. What did he get angry at you about?

A. Sometime after the murder, we went to a diner on Staten Island.

Q. What happened?

A. It was me, Sonny and Gino at the diner. I had brought up in the diner that I felt that Gino was treating me real bad and I told him that now that certain things had happened, that he should be giving me more respect.

Q. What did he say?

A. He got real angry and threatened to hit me with a ketchup bottle.

Q. Did he say anything specifically?

A. He said that nothing has changed, I still do what he says. When he calls, I answer, and don't think because anything happened that anything has changed.

Q. After the murder, was there a plan discussed as to what to do with Robert McKelvey's house?

A. Yes.

Q. What was the plan with the house?

A. Sonny had told me they were planning on building either semi-attached houses or a single house on the land.

Q. Who was going to build those houses?

A. They said I would have -- I would be doing some work on it. They didn't tell me exactly how much or what part, but they said they were planning on building some houses.

Q. Who is they?

A. Mike and Gino.

Q. After you were arrested, did you surrender certain items to the government?

A. Yes.

MR. CHAN: Your Honor, may I approach?
THE COURT: Yes.

Movie Trailer

Q. Showing you Government's Exhibit 41. Do you recognize this item?

A. Yes.

Q. What is it?

A. That's a trailer from the movie that we were making.

MR. CHAN: Your Honor, I offer it.
THE COURT: Admitted.

(Whereupon, Government's Exhibit 41 was received and marked into evidence, as of this date.)

Q. By the way, have you seen this trailer?

A. Yes.

Q. How do you know this is the trailer that you watched?

A. After I watched it, you had me sign my initials.

Q. Now, explain this, what is this a trailer of?

A. Sonny knew a guy from Long Island who was supposedly like a film producer, a young guy, maybe an aspiring film producer. He had the equipment to film a movie, a video camera and stuff like that. He wanted to make some type of movie, so he had us play the parts.

Q. Who is he?

A. Mike, Mike Maggio.

Q. Who played parts in the movie?

A. Me, Mike Maggio, Jose, Joey Young, Ronnie, Mike Galestro.

Q. Did the movie have a script?

A. It did, but.

Q. Who wrote the script?

A. Mike DiBernardo.

Q. Okay. Who was Mike DiBernardo?

A. He was the producer.

Q. Where was the movie filmed?

A. It was filmed - some parts were filmed at the Mansion, some parts were filmed at Mike's Body Shop.

Q. The same mansion that is on the screen, Government's Exhibit 38?

A. Yes.

Q. Was it filmed at the Mansion before or after the murder of Robert McKelvey?

A. After.

Q. When it was filmed, was Gino Galestro in prison or out of prison?

A. He was in prison.

MR. CHAN: Your Honor, at this time I would like to publish the movie.
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. CHAN: I think there's something wrong with my computer. I will fix it during the break.
THE COURT: All right.

Q. Continuing on with your testimony. What is the last time you saw the defendant drive?

A. A blue BMW.

Q. What kind of BMW?

A. It was a 3 series BMW.

Q. What kind of license plate did it have?

A. A Pennsylvania license plate.

Q. Before that BMW, did he drive another car?

A. Yes.

Q. What kind of car?

A. It was also a blue BMW.

Q. Exact same car?

A. The same car, just an older version.

Q. Did he ever tell you -- did the defendant ever tell you how he got the newer version?

A. Yes.

Q. What did he tell you?

A. He told me that he carjacked somebody in Pennsylvania for it.

Q. Did he go into any details about how he did it?

A. He said he held him with a gun.

Q. Where did the defendant tell you this?

A. At Fresca's.

Q. When?

A. Sometime probably in '05, '06.

Q. Were you ever involved in a shooting together with the defendant?

A. Yes.

Q. What year was that?

A. It was 2005.

Q. What did you shoot at?

A. I didn't shoot. I was in the car behind Joe, he was with Little John, and they shot at a house.

MR. CHAN: It looks like I fixed the computer, Judge.

THE COURT: Okay.

(The DVD is played at this time.)

Q. Now, we are about to see on our screens the movie that you made.

A. Yes.

Q. There's a scene where people are walking inside the Mansion, the foyer of the Mansion. What happened in the foyer of the Mansion during the murder?

A. That's where there was a struggle in the hallway and Bobby had crashed into the door.

Q. A struggle with whom?

A. With Joe.

(The DVD is played.)

Q. Who is that getting out of the car?

A. Mike Galestro.

Q. Where are they walking up now?

A. That's the front stairs of the Mansion.

Q. Is that the foyer we discussed?

A. Yes.

Q. Who is that?

A. It is Frank Fresca.

Q. The other person being hugged?

A. Sonny.

Q. Who is that?

A. That's Joe Young.

Q. Is that you?

A. Yes.

Q. Who is that picking up the gun?

A. That's Jose.

Q. Did you ever play this movie for anyone?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. No, it was never finished.

Q. Did you ever have a public viewing of any part of the movie?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. Well, we had a showing at a place in Long Island.

Q. Who is "we"?

A. Me, Mike and some others.

Q. Who attended the showing?

A. It was -- I guess it was like a club or lounge, people that were there got to talk to us about the movie, and we were all there at the showing.

Q. Now, to be clear, the scenes that were filmed, they were all make believe, correct?

A. Yes, that's correct.

Q. It wasn't someone actually being killed in that movie?

A. No.

Fresca Assault

Q. Now, going back to what we were talking about. The shooting that you were involved in with the defendant, what was shot at?

A. The side of someone's house.

Q. Whose house?

A. We believed it to be this person named Anthony or AD's house.

Q. Who is we?

A. Mike Maggio had said that that is one of those guys' houses.

Q. Was the shooting in response to something before that?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened before the shooting?

A. Frank Fresca was assaulted in his restaurant by a few men, and in retaliation to that, Mike had planned to shoot at one of those people's houses.

Q. Who had assaulted Frank Fresca?

A. A few guys -- two guys. One was Anthony, and I'm not sure of the other people. I know it had something to do with -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

Q. Did you say anything?

A. You just said who.

Q. Okay. Why did they beat up Frank Fresca?

A. Frank was dating this girl, and she was either divorced or going through a divorce, so she was much younger than him, and he was going around parading her around his restaurant, and her husband was upset, so they got to Frank and beat him up.

Q. How did you hear about the beating?

A. They had called me directly after it happened.

Q. Who is they?

A. Somebody from the restaurant called me.

Q. What did you do?

A. I ran over there, drove over there, and I saw Frank in the ambulance.

Q. How badly hurt was he?

A. Pretty bad.

Q. Describe what you saw?

A. His whole face was covered in blood. He was real hurt.

Q. Did you talk to him?

A. Yes.

Q. What did you talkabout?

A. Just asked him what happened, and he said it took five guys to do that to him, a 60-year-old man. He said, five guys did this to a 60-year-old man, and Gino is not going to let them get away with this, right. He kept saying this over and over again.

Q. Was there something ever done in revenge after that?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. Well, they decided to shoot at the house.

Q. Whose house?

A. One of the people that assaulted Frank.

Q. Whose idea was that?

A. That was Sonny's idea.

Q. Was there a meeting to discuss what do to?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened at the meeting?

A. Well, Gino was going to call up whoever was representing those guys in the family, so he was trying to find out what to do about the situation before he acted on it. So he had made some call to somebody in Florida, supposedly some made guy in Florida.

Q. What was the made guy in Florida, his relationship to the men who beat up Frank Fresca?

A. Supposedly they were associates in his crew.

Q. What became of that phone call, what was the result?

A. When Gino got off the phone, he was really angry, and he told Mike, he said, yeah, just do what you got to do.

Q. What was done?

A. Mike decided to get together and he wanted Joe to shoot at the house, do a drive-by shooting at the house.

Q. Who did he assemble?

A. It was me, Jose, Joe, Little John, John the Turk, and I'm not sure who else was there.

Q. Where did you meet?

A. Met at Fresca's.

Q. How did you guys know where to go?

A. Mike said he knew where they lived.

Q. How did you get there?

A. I was in the Turk's car with Mike and Jose, John the Turk, and in the car was Joe Young and Little John.

Q. Did anyone have a gun?

A. Yes.

Q. Who?

A. Joey Young.

Q. Whose gun was it?

A. It was Little John's gun.

Q. What happened when everyone got in the car?

A. We drove down the block that the house was on, and we were in the car behind Joe's car, and Joe shot a couple -- fired a couple of shots as he drove by.

Q. Who fired a couple of shots?

A. Joe.

Q. At what?

A. At the house.

Q. What part of the house?

A. The side of the house.

Q. Was the side of the house facing the street?

A. The street that we were on, yes.

Q. What time of night was this?

A. It was sometime in the early evening.

Q. Was anyone home?

A. I'm not sure.

Q. Did you care?

A. Again, I was just, you know, I cared, but there was nothing I could do about it to stop it.

Q. After the drive-by shooting, what did Frank Fresca do?

A. Frank, he was laying low. He was boarded up in his house. He had a lot of guns and stuff, so he was just sitting there with all of the guns in the living room by the window.

Q. Did he do anything for security at the restaurant?

A. I'm not sure.

Q. After the drive-by shooting, was anything more done in relationship to the assault on Frank Fresca?

A. Yes. Michael said he was going to blow up the guy's car and drive away, but they never did it.

Q. Did you ever see one of the assailants after the drive-by shooting?

A. Yes.

Q. Who did you see and where?

A. I saw one of the guys that I had noticed. I'm not sure what his exact name was, but I recognized him. I called up Sonny and told him that he was there.

Q. What did he say?

A. He said to follow him when he left and then beat him up.

Q. Did you do that?

A. Well, we followed him, but he was with his wife or his girlfriend, so we decided not to do it.

Q. Who is we?

A. Me, Joe Young and Jose.

Q. How far did you follow this person?

A. We followed him from the exit of the club to his house.

Q. What was the plan going to be?

A. It was to get out when we had the opportunity, the red light, and just grab him, pull him out of the car.

Q. Did it ever happen?

A. No.

Q. Did anything more come of the Frank Fresca incident after that?

A. Not that I know of.

Collecting from 'Andrew'

Q. I will show you a photograph marked as Government's Exhibit 27. Do you recognize this person?

A. Yes.

Q. Who is that?

A. Andrew.

Q. Were you involved in a collection of debt from this person?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. He was supposed to pay tribute money at Christmastime and he failed to do so.

Q. So what was the result of that?

A. Mike -- Sonny had organized the guys together and drove out to Long Island so that we could make arrangements to collect the money from him.

Q. When you say Sonny organized the guys, who was organized?

A. Me, Little John, John the Turk, Sonny, Joe Young, Jose.

Q. Approximately when did this happen?

A. It was probably around November.

Q. Of what year?

A. Of '05.

Q. What about the drive-by shooting that we just talked about, approximately when did that happen?

A. That was sometime in '05, I'm not sure.

Q. Where did you guys go together when you all assembled?

A. We went to Bella Roma Pizza Restaurant.

Q. Where is Bella Roma Pizza Restaurant?

A. It is in Long Island.

Q. How many cars did you take?

A. Two cars.

Q. Who was in the same car with you?

A. Me, Joe Young, Mike Maggio and Jose.

Q. Someone have a gun in that car?

A. Yes.

Q. Who?

A. Joe Young.

Q. And do you remember what kind?

A. It was a black automatic.

Q. Did you see him with that gun before?

A. Yes.

Q. Did he tell you where he got that gun?

A. Yes.

Q. Where?

A. He had a connection in Pennsylvania where you can buy it.

Q. Did he buy guns in Pennsylvania for anyone in the crew?

A. Yes.

Q. Who?

A. John the Turk.

Q. Back to that night. On the way to the pizza parlor, did something happen to one of the two cars on the way in?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. John the Turk was driving the Escalade and he had gotten pulled over.

Q. Pulled over by whom?

A. By the police.

Q. For what?

A. I think one of the taillights was out.

Q. The police let the car go?

A. Yes.

Q. Did the two cars continue?

A. Yes.

Q. Where did you guys go?

A. We went to Bella Roma.

Q. What happened when everyone arrived at Bella Roma?

A. We ate, drank.

Q. And then?

A. Then Mike and Joe went into the bathroom and they were talking in the bathroom. I walked into the bathroom a little while after that.

Q. What did you see when you joined Mike and the defendant in the bathroom?

A. Joe was doing something with the gun, and he was putting bullets in the gun or taking them out. He was doing something with the gun.

Q. Was there a discussion inside the bathroom?

A. Yes.

Q. What was discussed?

A. They were discussing what to do when Andrew had gotten there.

Q. Who said what?

A. Mike told me when they took Andrew into the back, he showed me the door where they were going to go through, he said he wanted me to take somebody from the table and guard the doorway so that nobody went back there.

Q. At some point did that happen?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened?

A. Andrew showed up and they brought him in the back.

Q. Who is they?

A. Joe Young and Mike Maggio.

Q. What did you do?

A. After they went out the back, I told Little John at the table to come into the back with me to stand by the doorway.

Q. What was your job at the doorway?

A. Just to make sure nobody passed.

Q. Did you have a problem with that?

A. Yes. The guys from the kitchen kept coming out because there were some pots they needed to cook with and they were getting angry.

Q. So what did you do?

A. After a little while, I went back there myself to where Mike and Joe was.

Q. Did you see what they were doing?

A. Yes.

Q. Where were they?

A. Outside of the back at the rear parking lot.

Q. What was happening in the rear parking lot?

A. Andrew was on his knees, and Joe was standing over him with a gun in his mouth.

Q. What did you say when you got outside?

A. I didn't walk too close to them. I just told Mike, come on, we got to go, with just a hand gesture, like it is taking too much time, you know.

Q. What happened?

A. He went, all right, and then we waited a little bit more, and they came walking out.

Q. Did you notice anything when they came back inside the restaurant?

A. Just that Andrew was visibly shaken and he left.

Q. After he left, did you talk with Mike Maggio about what happened?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you talk to the defendant about what happened?

A. Yes.

Q. What did the defendant say?

A. He was doing what Mike told him.

Q. What was that?

A. Put the gun in his mouth.

Q. What about the money, do you know if the money ever got to you?

A. I'm not sure.

Q. Did you ever talk to Mike about that?

A. I spoke to him. I'm not sure if he ever paid or not.

Pizza Restaurant Robbery

Q. Now, that same pizzeria place Bella Roma, did anyone try to rob it?

A. Yes.

Q. Who?

A. Mike, Jose and Joe.

Q. Approximately when?

A. Probably around the same time, in that time frame.

Q. How do you know that?

A. I heard a couple of discussions when they were there talking about it.

Q. What were the discussions that you heard?

A. They were trying to find out which is the best day to rob the guy. They were trying to figure out the most money. I think it was a Friday night that they were planning on doing it. So they had gone down there a few times and they were trying to find the right routes down the street and how they were going to block off the road, that way they could stop his car, get out and grab the money.

Q. Who was the guy?

A. The owner of the place.

Q. Showing you Government's Exhibit 26. Who is that?

A. That's the owner.

Q. Did you know his name?

A. I don't recall his name.

Q. In these discussions, what did the defendant say?

A. He said that he went down there a few times with Jose. They followed the guy. They know his route. They know how he is going to leave, how he is going to go home, but they need a car to block off the road he's driving down, that way they block him and get out.

Q. You said they had followed him home?

A. Yes.

Q. Followed who home?

A. The owner of the restaurant.

Q. Did the defendant say how many times he had done that?

A. They had gone down there a few times.

Q. Did the defendan discuss if he was armed in any way?

A. He said he was going to use the gun to hold him up.

Q. Do you know if they actually committed the robbery?

A. I'm not sure.

Maggio Wanted

Q. Turning your attention to January 2006. At some point did you learn that the F.B.I. was looking for Mike Maggio?

A. Yes.

Q. How did you learn that?

A. Frank Fresca had called me and told me that he couldn't get in touch with Mike, and they had an APB out for Mike's arrest, that they knew what car he was driving and that they were looking for him.

Q. Did you speak to Mike?

A. Yes.

Q. What did you tell him?

A. I told him that they know what car he's driving and the police were looking for him.

Q. What did he say?

A. He said, all right, he told me to lay low and he was going to call me as soon as he could after he found out what was going on.

Q. Did he call you back?

A. Yes.

Q. When?

A. A few days later he called me.

Q. What did he say?

A. He said to meet him at Daryl's house.

Q. The Daryl that is in Government Exhibit 17?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you do that?

A. Yes.

Q. Who was there?

A. Mike Maggio, Little John, myself and Daryl.

Q. What did Mike Maggio tell you at Daryl's house?

A. He told me that he was going to turn himself in, that there's an APB out for him for an arson.

Q. Did he tell you what happened with respect to the arson?

A. Yes.

Q. What did he say?

A. He said that him, Joe Young, and John the Turk went and did an arson.

Q. Did he go over the details of the arson?

A. Yes.

Q. Why did he do that?

A. Because it was only the three of them that did it. He was wondering how the police found out about it, and he said there must have been a rat. So he was trying to find out who. I asked him to go over everything step-by-step, this way we could try to figure it out.

Q. What did he tell you?

A. He told me he went to New Jersey, bought gas containers, filled them up, and went to Staten Island and did the arson on a house on Staten Island.

...

Q. Did he tell you what his plans were?

A. He wanted me to take care of his wife and kids, and make sure they were provided for in any way I can, and Little John was going to take care of his street money and everything like that.

Q. Was that the last time you spoke or saw Mike Maggio?

A. Yes.

Cicale Arrested

Q. Later on were you, yourself, arrested?

A. Yes.

Q. By whom?

A. By the F.B.I.

Q. When?

A. May 11, 2006.

Q. What were you charged with?

A. I was charged with accessory after the fact of murder and charged with one count of loansharking.

Q. Were you granted or denied bail at the time of your arrest?

A. Denied bail.

Q. Have you been in prison since your arrest?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you initially decide to fight the case?

A. Yes.

Q. While you were fighting the case, did you look at the discovery that was given to you?

A. Some of it, yes.

Q. What specifically did you look at?

A. The government provided me with some transcripts of some recorded tapes that they had from a confidential informant.

Q. How many transcripts did you look at?

A. There was maybe about a dozen transcripts.

Q. Were these full transcripts or partial transcripts?

A. Partial transcripts.

Q. About how many pages would you say you saw?

A. Not many.

Q. Did you go to court?

A. Yes.

Q. Was the defendant one of your codefendants?

A. Yes.

Q. During those court appearances, were you ever together with him?

A. Yes.

Q. Where?

A. In the holding cells before we went to court.

Q. The holding cells in this courthouse?

A. I'm not even sure which courthouse I was in.

Q. A courthouse?

A. Yes, it was a courthouse.

Q. While you were with him in the holding cell, did the defendant ever talk to you about the evidence against you guys?

A. Yes.

Q. What did he tell you?

A. He said that, don't worry, you know, you were there, you know what happened. So all of the evidence was disposed of. There was nothing left of the crime. Everything was cleaned up. The only thing I asked him was what did he do with the pipe.

Q. What did he say when you asked him about the pipe?

A. He said he got rid of the pipe. He threw it in the water behind Fresca's.

Q. What pipe was this?

A. This was the pipe that we used to maneuver the parts in the furnace.

Q. He threw it where at Fresca's?

A. In the water behind Fresca's.

Q. Did you discuss alibis?

A. Yes.

Q. What did the defendant say about alibis?

A. He said that he could have an alibi for us that we were all at Curves that night, because he knew the people there and they would vouch for him that we were there all night.

Cooperating Witness

Q. Did you ultimately decide to proceed with your case differently?

A. Yes.

Q. What did you decide to do?

A. I decided to cooperate with the government.

Q. So, did you meet with Assistant U.S. Attorneys and F.B.I. agents?

A. Yes.

Q. Was your lawyer with you?

A. At first.

Q. How many times did you meet with them?

A. A few dozen times.

Q. Before or after you pled guilty?

A. After.

Q. What about before, how many times did you meet?

A. A few times, maybe eight times.

Q. What was discussed at these meetings before you pled guilty?

A. Before I pled guilty, we discussed basically everything that I have told you today, the crimes that I have done and who I have done them with.

Q. Did you discuss, during those meetings, more than what we talked about today?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you admit to all of the crimes in your life?

A. Yes.

Q. Even the ones that were dismissed?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you admit to crimes that you believed the government didn't even know about?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you plead guilty?

A. Yes.

Q. Before a Federal Judge in this district?

A. Yes.

Q. After you pled guilty, you continued to meet with the government?

A. That's correct.

Q. How many meetings of those did you have?

A. A few dozen.

Q. At those meetings, were you ever shown evidence?

A. No.

Q. Were you ever told who witnesses would be?

A. No.

Q. Since you pled guilty, have you spoken to Michael Maggio?

A. No.

Q. Have you spoken to Gino Galestro?

A. No.

Q. Have you spoken to Little John?

A. No.

Q. Have you spoken to the defendant?

A. No.

Q. Have you spoken to anybody on this board?

A. No.

Q. What crimes did you plead guilty to?

A. I pled guilty to three counts of extortionate collection of credit. I pled guilty to racketeering. I pled guilty to accessory after the fact of murder. I pled guilty to larceny by extortion. I pled guilty to narcotics distribution.

Q. What about robbery?

A. And robbery conspiracy.

Q. Robbery of what?

A. Of a card house in Staten Island.

Q. When you pled guilty to racketeering, did you plead guilty to being part of a particular enterprise?

A. Yes.

Q. What enterprise?

A. The Bonanno organized crime family.

Q. Did you admit your involvement in the Bonanno Family?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you plead guilty to having a particular position?

A. Yes.

Q. What was that?

A. Associate.

Q. At the time that you pled guilty, were you advised of the maximum statutory sentence that you face?

A. Yes.

Q. To your understanding, what is that?

A. Zero years to 35 years.

Q. How about the maximum fine?

A. $250,000.

Q. Are you required to pay restitution to the victims at the time of your sentencing?

A. If the judge feels it is necessary, yes.

Plea Deal

Q. Did you plead guilty pursuant to a written agreement?

A. Yes.

...

Q. Showing you what is marked as Government Exhibit 3500-SC-13. What is that?

A. It's a cooperation agreement.

Q. Whose?

A. Mine.

Q. What's your understanding of your obligations under this agreement?

A. Obligations are to provide truthful and accurate testimony and information to the government.

Q. About what?

A. About all of the crimes that I have done, people that I have done them with.

Q. What is your understanding of the government's obligation under this agreement?

A. The government's obligation is to write a letter to the court.

Q. What kind of letter?

A. A 5K1 letter.

Q. What do you understand is going to be in this 5K1 letter?

A. I understand it to be in the 5K1 a list of all of the crimes that I have done and all of the assistance I have provided to the government.

Q. Is this letter important to you?

A. Yes.

Q. Why is that?

A. Because without it I would be sentenced under the guidelines, and with the letter, a sentencing under the guidelines is not mandatory, but up to the Judge.

Q. Is you getting a 5K1 letter from the government depending on any testimony?

A. No.

Q. Even if the government writes this letter for you, is the Judge, as far as you understand, required to give you a lesser sentence?

A. No.

Q. Who has the ultimate power to decide what the sentence will be?

A. All of the power lies with the Judge.

Q. What happens if you lie here today?

A. If I lie here today, I won't be getting a letter.

Q. Can you withdraw your guilty plea?

A. No.

(Break)

Q. Before the break, Mr. Cicale, we were talking about your obligation under your cooperation agreement. Does the cooperation agreement also talk about what you must give the government?

A. Yes.

Q. What is that?

A. I'm supposed to provide the government with any paperwork or documents, anything that can be relevant to their investigation.

Q. Was that movie one of the things you provided?

A. Yes.

Q. Showing you Government's Exhibit 40. What is this?

A. This a printout of my cell phone.

Q. Of your cell phone what?

A. The numbers on my cell phone.

Q. Did you provide that to the government?

A. Yes.

...

Q. Thank you. No further questions your honor.

 

Notes

Joseph "Joe Black" Young: The defendant in U.S. v. Young was a Bonanno Crime Family associate. At the end of the October 2008 trial, Young took the witness stand to testify in his own defense. He admitted that he dismembered the corpse of March 29, 2005, gangland slaying victim Robert McKelvey and disposed of the remains in an incinerator. However, he insisted that he took no part in the stabbing and drowning of McKelvey. He said mob turncoat Michael "Sonny" Maggio killed McKelvey. Young also admitted to a number of other prosecution charges, including assault, arson and robbery. Young was convicted of the murder and other racketeering offenses and sentenced in March 2009 to life in prison.

Gino Galestro: Shortly before trial Bonanno Crime Family soldier Galestro pleaded guilty to racketeering charges that included ordering the murder of Robert McKelvey. On September 8, 2009 he appeared before Judge Allyne Ross of the Eastern District of New York for sentencing. He apologized to the victim's family and asked for leniency. The Judge in response gave him the maximum penalty of twenty years imprisonment. Galestro is currently imprisoned at the low security Institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey with a scheduled release date of November 2023.

Michael "Sonny" Maggio: In February 2006 Bonanno Crime Family member Maggio, also known as "Chief," became the first of those involved in the McKelvey murder to become a cooperating witness. Despite his central role in the case he was not called to testify at trial. Maggio is a brother-in-law of Gino Galestro. He was cousin to the murdered restaurateur Frank Fresca.

Frank Fresca: Barred from trial on court order was any mention of Fresca's subsequent murder in front of his restaurant on July 30, 2008. Exiting the establishment shortly after midnight, Fresca, 66, was hit nine times by .22 caliber rounds fired by an as yet unidentified assailant. At the time police theorized of a possible link with the April 7, 2005 assault. The case remains unsolved.

Stefan Cicale: The government's key witness against Joseph Young, Cicale pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including assisting with the disposal of Robert McKelvey's remains. On Nov. 19, 2010, 36-year-old Cicale's formal guilty plea earned him a sentence of time served. He had been in prison for four and a half years.

 
 

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