Elderly Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro will remain behind bars pending his upcoming trial, a judge ruled Thursday–a day after it was revealed he’d been caught talking about rubbing out his lead prosecutor.
“Neither his age nor his heath problems appear to have diminished his capacity for violence,” Brooklyn federal court Judge Allyne Ross said as she ordered the 82-year-old mobster remain jailed until his August arson trial.
“He repeatedly and chillingly importuned the killing of the prosecutor, noting that it not be botched,” the jurist added, noting the aging mafia captain’s ” desperation and proclivity for violence.”
The ruling comes a day after a jailhouse rat was cited in court documents saying Asaro – who was acquitted less than two years ago for his role as alleged mastermind in the 1978 Lufthansa heist – was mulling the assassination of his “bitch” prosecutor, Nicole Argentieri.
“We need to do something about this bitch,” Asaro allegedly said sometime around Easter. “We need to handle this.”
Argentieri was not in court Thursday, as the famed wiseguy attempted escape the Manhattan Detention Complex, where he’s remained since his March arrest for ordering associates to torch the car of a man who cut him off on a Queens highway in 2012.
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s office declined to comment on her absence.
Yet Asaro’s family was there: waving, blowing kisses–and at one point guffawing when Assistant US Attorney Keith Edelman mentioned the murder of Paul Katz, who Asaro allegedly strangled with a dog chain.
As Edelman argued for the mafia big’s detention, he called upon Asaro’s own ink.
“There is only one way out of this life, as exemplified by his tattoo,” Edelman gestured. “Death before dishonor.”
Defense attorney Elizabeth Macedonio called that assertion “ridiculous.”
“There are many ways out of a life of crime,” she shot back. “One is to cooperate, once is to die, and one is to simply go home. At one point in one’s life, you go home, and you simply stay home.”
“At best you have an angry 82-year-old man, lamenting he’s back in prison, put there by the same team of prosecutors and the same FBI agents who put him there before,” the defense attorney said.
“The government’s assertions are preposterous and Mr. Asaro adamantly denies the allegations,’ Macedonio wrote in a submission to Judge Ross. “If it were truly the case that a plan to murder a federal prosecutor was underway by the Bonanno crime family, this would not have been the result and Mr. Asaro would remain in the special housing unit.”
The captain has since re-entered general population, following a three-week stint in special housing. Prosecutors declined to say on the record Thursday if an investigation into the threats remained ongoing.
Asaro and his co-defendants are slotted to head to trial in August. Macedonio has been pushing for a speedy trial, citing her client’s health.
In what Asaro has himself called a possible death sentence, he faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted in connection with the flame job.