September 10,1999

https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/37975653/

Capo's son gets 6 yrs. in plea deal By JERRY CAPECI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER A Gambino family associate charged with conspiring to kill drug dealer Joseph Scarpa received a 78-month prison term in a plea bargain that spared him any blame in the murder. Joseph Rizzuto of Bensonhurst, who was indicted as a participant in the murder plot in an alleged drug dispute with Rizzuto's brother Vincent, was sentenced for drug dealing and racketeering by Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman. Scarpa, 23, son of late Colombo crime family capo Gregory Scarpa Sr., was shot dead March 20, 1995, as he sat in a car parked on Brown St. in Sheepshead Bay.

Vincent Rizzuto, the alleged triggerman, rejected a plea offer and is awaiting trial for racketeering, drug dealing and Scarpa's killing. Joseph Rizzuto, 25, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill a witness to Scarpa's killing - a fact that assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Walden stressed in asking Korman to impose an 87-month sentence, the maximum under the plea deal. In fact, argued Walden, Rizzuto was involved in planning the Scarpa killing, had advised his brother to hire a professional hit man to carry it out and, during plea discussions, had agreed to accept a seven-year prison term. In a spirited retort, Rizzuto's lawyer James DiPietro argued for the minimum under the plea deal - 70 months - saying his client had beaten up his brother when he learned about the Scarpa killing and had agreed to seven years when prosecutors offered Vincent an 18-year deal.

As dozens of friends and family members nodded, DiPietro argued that since prosecutors raised Vincent's plea deal to 25 years, Joseph should get the lesser term. In a letter to Korman, Rizzuto's girlfriend, Spring Pape, 31, who described herself as a makeup artist, called her boyfriend a "caring, gentle" man who acted as a father for Vincent's three children for four years - when Vincent was a fugitive charged with Scarpa's murder. Rizzuto's cousins Russell and Ronald Carlucci pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering, murder conspiracy in Scarpa's killing and other charges. They are awaiting sentencing..