Supreme Court backs extra prison time for ‘Fat Sal’ in murder-for-hire plot

(CNN) — The Supreme Court on Friday sided with federal prosecutors who moved to tack extra prison time onto the sentence of a Genovese crime family associate known in New York as “Fat Sal” who was convicted of a murder-for-hire plot.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for a seven-justice majority. Justice Neil Gorsuch penned a dissent joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Salvatore Delligatti challenged the five years added to his sentence tied to his 2018 conviction of attempted murder and other crimes. Federal law requires mandatory additional prison time if a defendant uses a gun as part of a “crime of violence.”

But Delligatti, who helped run an illegal sports-gambling operation in Queens for a “made” member of the family, said he never used the “physical force” required to meet the definition of a crime of violence.

Instead, he said, he hired members of the Crips gang through an intermediary to carry out a killing and gave them a .38 revolver for the crime.

The majority balked at the argument.

“Whenever someone knowingly causes physical harm, he uses force within the meaning of” the law,” Thomas wrote. “The knowing or intentional causation of injury or death, whether by act or omission, necessarily involves the use of physical force against another person.”

In dissent, Gorsuch likened the circumstances to a lifeguard who sits idly by watching a swimmer drown.

“Instead of leaping into action, the lifeguard chooses to settle back in his chair, twirl his whistle, and watch the swimmer slip away,” Gorsuch wrote. “The lifeguard is a bad man. In many states, he may be guilty of a serious crime for failing to fulfill his legal duty to help the swimmer. But does the lifeguard’s offense also qualify … as a ‘crime of violence’ involving the ‘use … of physical force against the person…of another’? The court thinks so. I do not.”

Federal appeals courts have split over how to apply the “crime of violence” penalty in similar circumstances and the Justice Department – though it opposed Delligatti’s arguments – also urged the Supreme Court to take up his appeal to provide clarity for lower courts. The New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Delligatti’s conviction.

Delligatti had targeted Joseph Bonelli as a local “bully” who was “terrorizing” a gas station that Delligatti and his associates frequented. The family also suspected Bonelli was cooperation against bookies in the neighborhood, which the government said made him a potential threat to the family’s gambling operation.

Police intercepted the gang members before they were able to carry out the killing. Delligatti was convicted of several crimes and sentenced to 25 years in prison – including five years for the gun charge.

The Supreme Court in recent years has limited the circumstances under which prosecutors may seek enhanced prison sentences for a “crime of violence.” In a decision Delligatti relied on heavily in his appeal, a 7-2 majority of the Supreme Court two years ago ruled in favor of a Virginia defendant who was convicted of the gun charge for using a gun in an attempted robbery.

The-CNN-Wire
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