Defense Rests in Trial of Reputed Mob Boss

The defense lawyer for Michael Anthony Rizzitello rested his case Monday without calling the reputed mobster to testify on his own behalf.

Rizzitello, 62, an alleged underboss in the Milano crime family in Los Angeles, is charged with attempted murder in the April 30, 1987, shooting of William Carroll, the Mustang Club financier blinded when three bullets were fired into the back of his head.

Defense attorney Anthony P. Brooklier left court without commenting on why Rizzitello did not testify.

Carroll has testified that Rizzitello shot him and that Joey Grosso, who ran errands for the Mustang topless bar, held his leg so he could not get away. Grosso, 46, has already been convicted and is serving 27 years to life for his role in Carroll’s shooting.

Prosecutors contend that Rizzitello shot Carroll because he believed the financier would not agree to cut Rizzitello in on the club’s profits. He allegedly wanted Carroll out of the way so he could pressure the Mustang’s manager to share the club’s profits. Mustang manager Gene Lesher has testified that this was exactly what Rizzitello did. And Lesher said he gave in to Rizzitello out of fear that he would end up like Carroll.

Some officials believe that if Rizzitello had testified, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans probably could have gained permission to tell the jury of Rizzitello’s conviction in a 1980 racketeering case. In that case, Rizzitello and four others were convicted of making threats of violence in order to extort money from pornography dealers--the same thing prosecutors say happened at the Mustang Club.

“Rizzitello could not afford for jurors to see how similar they were,” one official said.

Without Rizzitello’s testimony, the best witness for the defense, so far, has turned out to be someone who has not testified in the trial--Grosso.

Brooklier has presented to jurors, through other sources, statements made by Grosso before his trial that a bouncer at the club, George Yudzevich, was the actual killer, and that Rizzitello was not present. Yudzevich was murdered a year after the Carroll shooting.

Grosso recanted that statement when he testified at his own trial, and instead identified Rizzitello as having shot Carroll. Grosso told jurors that he had made the statement about Yudzevich because Rizzitello had threatened to kill him if he implicated him in the shooting.

But Rizzitello’s jurors have yet to learn that Grosso identified Rizzitello as Carroll’s assailant. Evans is expected to make that clear to jurors when his rebuttal begins today.

The question remains whether prosecutors will now put Grosso on the witness stand. Grosso has been brought to Orange County Jail from prison in Chino to be ready in case Evans calls him.