NEW YORK — — A New York man will spend the rest of his life in prison after hiring a hitman to kill his father, a reputed Mafia associate gunned down at a McDonald's drive-thru in what prosecutors called a scheme to control a real estate empire built from mob money.
A jury last fall found Zottola and an accomplice, Himen Ross, guilty in a murder-for-hire plot that prosecutors said went wrong several times before it finally led to the death of the victim, Sylvester Zottola, 71. Prosecutors said Anthony Zottola Sr. also tried unsuccessfully to have his brother, Salvatore, killed.
“There was a lot to go around ... The defendant wanted more than that,” said U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez, adding that Zottola showed little remorse for “the unimaginable horror he caused his family.”