Mob Figure Guilty in Shooting : Victim Left Blind by 1987 Attack

Joseph Angelo Grosso, a longtime FBI informant with ties to organized crime, was convicted today of attempted first-degree murder and conspiracy in the 1987 shooting of Mustang Club financier William Carroll, who had resisted mob efforts to take over the topless bar’s operation.

Law enforcement officials said the Grosso verdict excited them because of its implications for Los Angeles racketeer Michael Anthony Rizzitello, 62, Grosso’s co-defendant, scheduled to go on trial for the Carroll shooting Dec. 11.

Rizzitello has a long history of fraud and racketeering convictions. But this could be the most serious sentence he has ever faced.

Carroll, left permanently blind in the May 1, 1987, shooting in a Costa Mesa parking garage, identified Rizzitello as the gunman, and Grosso, 46, as the driver who held him down to prevent his escape.

Grosso jury foreman Kathleen Bruck of Costa Mesa said the jurors believed Carroll’s testimony that Rizzitello was the man who shot him and that Grosso was a participant.

Grosso, who faces an automatic sentence of 25 years to life in prison, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted first-degree murder, and mayhem, a charge related to the blinding of Carroll.

Grosso, who denied in his testimony that he had any ties to Rizzitello, varied his accounts of what happened too much for his testimony to be believable, jury foreman Bruck said.

On the witness stand, Grosso said that Rizzitello was the shooter and that he was only the driver and had no idea any shots were going to be fired.

The defendant testified during his trial that he had told as many as 20 different versions of the story because he feared retribution from Rizzitello, who had reportedly threatened Grosso and his family.

“We tried to show the jurors that Mr. Grosso had to tell different stories about what happened to protect himself from being killed,” said Grosso attorney William Yacobozzi Jr. “But obviously they did not accept that.”

The jurors deliberated six days, but Bruck said there was little disagreement among the jurors that Grosso was involved in the shooting. The number of charges, and some difficulty with the legal definition of mayhem accounted for the lengthy deliberations, she said.

Carroll is one of three people involved in the operation of the now-defunct Mustang Club on Harbor Boulevard who were targets of gunmen. Murdered four months before the Carroll shooting was Jimmy Casino, the club operator who borrowed money from Carroll to start up the club. Also murdered nearly a year after the Carroll shooting was George (Big George) Yudzevich, a bouncer at the club who prosecutors claim also worked for Rizzitello.

Carroll was found bleeding and left for dead shortly after midnight in a deserted parking garage.

Superior Court Judge John L. Flynn Jr., set a Dec. 12 sentencing date for Grosso.