{"id":276802,"date":"2023-06-09T07:47:05","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T12:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=276802"},"modified":"2023-06-09T10:58:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T15:58:18","slug":"bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloods Leader Gets 37 Years for Murder of Mafia Gambling Kingpin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Brooklyn Bloods leader who organized the killing of a reputed Bonnano crime family associate was sentenced to 37 years in prison by a federal judge on Thursday.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_276803\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-276803\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-276803\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bushwan-858x644.jpg\" alt=\"Bushwan Shelton, Sylvester Zottola, Anthony Zottola\" width=\"858\" height=\"644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bushwan-858x644.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bushwan-430x323.jpg 430w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bushwan.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-276803\"class=\"text-description\">Bushwan Shelton, above, pleaded guilty to organizing the killing of Sylvester Zottola, who once controlled illegal video gambling operations for the Bonanno crime family. (Image: NYDN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bushawn Shelton, 39, arranged the murder of Sylvester \u201cSally Daz\u201d Zottola, 71, at the behest of Zottola\u2019s own son, Anthony Zottola, who coveted his father\u2019s real-estate empire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zottola senior, who for decades ran illegal \u201cJoker Poker\u201d machines in New York City for the mafia, was shot to death in his car at a Bronx McDonald\u2019s drive-thru in October 2018.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Anthony Zottola and the triggerman, Bloods member Hyman Ross, were found guilty of murder charges in October 2022 and sentenced to life imprisonment in April. They were also convicted of the attempted murder of Anthony\u2019s brother, Salvatore Zottola, who was shot in the head, chest, and hand by Ross outside his home in July 2018.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Botched Attempts <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The court heard that Anthony Zottola first met Shelton through a mutual friend and initially hired him to rough up a tenant before concocting the patricidal plot.<\/p>\n<p>This led to at least six botched assassination attempts in the lead-up to the murder, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>Sylvester Zottola was attacked at gunpoint by a masked person in November 2017. A month later, three men attacked him in his home, striking him on the head with a gun, stabbing him, and slashing his throat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The defendant orchestrated a series of attacks both on Sylvester and Salvatore Zottola over the course of a year that caused terror for this family,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cHe appears to have done all of this purely out of \u2014 there\u2019s no other word but a sense of greed, for payment from Mr Zottola.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Tracking Device<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Eventually, Shelton arranged for the placement of a tracking device on Sylvester Zottola\u2019s car, allowing Ross to follow him to a McDonald\u2019s restaurant on Webster Avenue, where the victim had stopped for coffee.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Immediately after the hit, Ross and Shelton exchanged texts, and then Shelton texted Anthony Zottola to inform him his father had been killed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan we party today or tomorrow?\u201d Shelton asked.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Defendant Apologizes \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In court, Shelton struck a different tone, repeatedly apologizing to the Zottola family.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>I\u2019m sorry. I\u2019m truly sorry for the pain, trauma, and damage I caused your family. I\u2019ve been waiting years to express my regret and my remorse to you,\u201d<\/strong> he said, as reported by <em>The New York Daily News<\/em>. <strong>\u201cAll I know how to do is try to be better, and I just want to tell you I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Salvatore Zottola told the court that Shelton&#8217;s apologies \u201cmeant nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Brooklyn Bloods leader who organized the killing of a reputed Bonnano crime family associate was sentenced to 37 years in prison by a federal judge on Thursday. Bushawn Shelton, 39, arranged the murder of Sylvester \u201cSally Daz\u201d Zottola, 71, at the behest of Zottola\u2019s own son, Anthony Zottola, who coveted his father\u2019s real-estate empire. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":276803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60],"tags":[86635,86633,86634],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bloods Leader Gets 37 Years for Murder of Mafia Gambling Kingpin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bushawn Shelton sentenced to 37 years in a federal prison for conspiring to murder Sylvester Zottola, along with Anthony Zottola.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bloods Leader Gets 37 Years for Murder of Mafia Gambling Kingpin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bushawn Shelton sentenced to 37 years in a federal prison for conspiring to murder Sylvester Zottola, along with Anthony Zottola.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-09T12:47:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-09T15:58:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bushwan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/\",\"name\":\"Bloods Leader Gets 37 Years for Murder of Mafia Gambling Kingpin\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bushwan.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-09T12:47:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-09T15:58:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Bushawn Shelton sentenced to 37 years in a federal prison for conspiring to murder Sylvester Zottola, along with Anthony Zottola.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bloods-leader-gets-37-years-for-murder-of-mafia-gambling-kingpin\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bushwan.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Bushwan.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":960,\"caption\":\"Bushwan Shelton, above, pleaded guilty to organizing the killing of Sylvester Zottola, who once controled illegal video gambling operations for the Bonanno crime family. 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