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.
Anthony Zottola Sr. blotted away tears at sentencing Friday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Audible sobs filled the courtroom as his sister and brother addressed him, the culmination of a wrenching family drama that the judge said was difficult to fathom.
Welling with emotion, his sister Deborah Ann Zottola, spoke lovingly of her brother even as she talked of the pain of losing their father.
“I won’t dig you a deeper grave. I will continue praying for you … but please pray for me,” she said, lamenting that Friday would be the last time she would be in the same room with both brothers.
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.
The first attack occurred in September of 2017, when a stranger floored the then-70-year-old with a punch to the face outside his Bronx home. Two months later a gunman shot at Sylvester Zottola as he drove on an expressway. In late December of that same year, three men broke into his home and struck him on the head with a gun, repeatedly stabbed him and slashed his throat. He survived.
The following October, he was shot to death by Ross at a McDonald’s drive-thru in the Bronx while waiting for a cup of coffee.
Prosecutors said Anthony Zottola Sr. also tried unsuccessfully to have his brother, Salvatore, killed.
In July of 2018, a gunman shot Salvatore Zottola in the head, chest and hand outside of his home. He survived.
In court, Salvatore Zottola fought back tears.
“Why?” he asked his brother from across the room. “Dad gave you everything. You had everything in life.”
The judge also tried to…
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