Junior Gotti's rat buddy John Alite gets 10 year prison sentence
John Alite had pleaded guilty to two gangland murders and a slew of other crimes, and got more jail time than infamous rats Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano and Salvatore Vitale, who were more prolific killers.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and Tampa wrote letters to Federal Judge Susan Bucklew praising Alite's cooperation as "extraordinary" and "substantial."
"People have done a lot more and gotten a lot less," said a law enforcement source who worked on the Gotti case.
"It's a very heavy-handed sentence," the source added.
Alite has already served more than six years in prison, so he has less than four years to go before he's sprung with credit for good time.
Defense lawyer Tim Fitzgerald declined to comment.
Alite began cooperating in 2007 after he was extradited from Brazil, where he was on the lam from a Gambino-related indictment in Florida.
Junior Gotti was the best man at Alite's wedding and for years the two worked hand in hand in criminal ventures as the younger Gotti rose in the ranks of the Gambino crime family.
Alite had his own crew wreaking havoc in Ozone Park, Queens, and prosecutors revealed new details about his relationship with crew member Nicholas Tobia, who went on to become a cop.
"In the mid-1990s, Tobia received permission from Alite to join the Suffolk County Police Department," according to court papers filed in Tampa Federal Court.
"Tobia also provided Alite with a bulletproof vest when Alite was concerned about Gotti killing him," the papers state.
Tobia, who allegedly participated in the 1988 murder of George Grosso with Alite, resigned from the force in 2009.
Alite made his first appearance as a government witness in the trial of Gambino hit man Charles Carneglia in Brooklyn Federal Court and dropped the bombshell that he had a fling with a then-married Victoria Gotti.
The mob princess furiously denied Alite's claim and even took a lie detector test to make her point.
"John Alite provided information that materially contributed to the conviction of numerous members and associates of the Gambino organized crime family," Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roger Burlingame wrote to the judge.
"John Alite's criminal history is galling but over the course of scores of hours spent discussing it with him, I came to believe that he was disgusted by the life he led and that he genuinely hoped to make some amends for it."
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