LOCAL : Reputed Crime Family Boss Gets 33 Years for Shooting

Los Angeles racketeer Michael Anthony Rizzitello, reputed to be an under-boss in the Milano organized crime family, was sentenced in Santa Ana to 33 years in prison today for the shooting of a topless bar financier.

C. William Carroll, left permanently blind after being shot three times in the head while parked in a Costa Mesa garage three years ago, told an Orange County Superior Court judge before the sentencing:

“I can’t see justice done, but I can hear it; I would like to hear it today.”

Prosecutors claim that Rizzitello, 62, tried to kill Carroll because he saw him as a roadblock in the racketeer’s attempt to take over the now-closed Mustang Club in Santa Ana. After the shooting, Rizzitello received $5,000 a week from the club’s profits after threatening manager Gene Lesher that he would be next if he didn’t cooperate, according to Lesher’s testimony.

Joseph Angelo Grosso, 46, is already serving a 26-year sentence for his participation in the Carroll shooting.

Carroll said he rode with Rizzitello and Grosso to a parking garage just after midnight on May 1, 1987, so they could pick up a car. But Rizzitello, seated in the back, grabbed Carroll from behind and put a gun to his head, Carroll said. Grosso, in the driver’s seat, held Carroll down to prevent his escape when Rizzitello started shooting.

Grosso also testified that Rizzitello was the gunman, but he denied that he had known in advance that the shooting was going to occur.

Superior Court Judge John L. Flynn Jr. sentenced Rizzitello to 25 years to life in prison for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He then added three years for great bodily injury to Carroll, two years for use of a firearm and another three years because Rizzitello was a convicted felon with a firearm.

Rizzitello has a long history of racketeering-related arrests and convictions. He was one of five people convicted in Los Angeles County in 1980 in a major federal organized crime case. But Rizzitello had also been acquitted in three major cases since then--two involving fraud charges and one involving a possible attempt to kill a government witness.