Sentencing for shooter in mob murder postponed
Sentencing was postponed on Friday for Frankie A. Roche, the shooter in the 2003 murder of Mafia boss Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno.
U.S. District Court officials said a new sentencing date had not been set.
Roche, 39, would be the second mob turncoat to be sentenced in the long-running case, which bounced from state court to federal court in Massachusetts before being transferred to federal court in Manhattan in 2010.
Roche is among eight co-defendants and was the first charged in the case and the first to sign a plea deal with the government. His is the only case that remained in federal court in Springfield, where he pleaded guilty in 2008. The other defendants have been or will be sentenced in federal court in New York City.
Roche turned government witness on the eve of his trial on state murder charges in 2008. He was later among three key government witnesses in two trials in New York City in 2011 and 2012.
During those trials, he told jurors he was recruited to kill Bruno by a prison buddy, and ambushed the gangster outside an Italian-American social club on Nov. 23, 2003. Roche fled the area and was arrested months later in Florida by the FBI. He was accidentally shot in the back during the arrest and later received a $150,000 settlement from the government.
Formerly of Westfield, Roche is facing life in prison but prosecutors are expected to recommend a sentence far lower than that in exchange for Roche's testimony at the two previous New York trials.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/sentencing_postponed_for_frank.html
U.S. District Court officials said a new sentencing date had not been set.
Roche, 39, would be the second mob turncoat to be sentenced in the long-running case, which bounced from state court to federal court in Massachusetts before being transferred to federal court in Manhattan in 2010.
Roche is among eight co-defendants and was the first charged in the case and the first to sign a plea deal with the government. His is the only case that remained in federal court in Springfield, where he pleaded guilty in 2008. The other defendants have been or will be sentenced in federal court in New York City.
Roche turned government witness on the eve of his trial on state murder charges in 2008. He was later among three key government witnesses in two trials in New York City in 2011 and 2012.
During those trials, he told jurors he was recruited to kill Bruno by a prison buddy, and ambushed the gangster outside an Italian-American social club on Nov. 23, 2003. Roche fled the area and was arrested months later in Florida by the FBI. He was accidentally shot in the back during the arrest and later received a $150,000 settlement from the government.
Formerly of Westfield, Roche is facing life in prison but prosecutors are expected to recommend a sentence far lower than that in exchange for Roche's testimony at the two previous New York trials.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/sentencing_postponed_for_frank.html
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