Aaron Galli refused to show up for court Friday. But a judge sentenced him to prison anyway for robbery.
Now prosecutors may drop a murder charge he was once convicted of.The already-complicated case against Aaron Galli took new twists in 3rd District Court Friday. Defense attorneys accused prosecutors of playing politics amid allegations that Galli and his attorneys are manipulating the court system.
When jail officers transported inmates to court Friday, Galli apparently refused to go.
His attorney argued that he couldn't be sentenced. But Judge Richard Moffat disagreed and sentenced Galli in abstentia, ordering him to serve one to 15 years in prison for his guilty plea to robbery.
Galli, 23, will join his cousins, Nathan and Christopher Galli, who are also serving prison time for a string of armed robberies. His brother, Adam Galli, remains at large and faces murder and rob
bery charges.
Prosecutor John Spikes called Aaron Galli the "leader and nucleus of this so-called Galli gang. And we should not forget this was a gang. This particular gang basically threat-ened and pointed guns at innocent people," he said.
"When you remove his preppy-bandit mask, what you see is a violent and unremorseful robber that needs to go to prison."
Defense attorney David Sanders said such descriptions of his client are not true. He repeatedly asked the judge to postpone the sentencing to give him time to disprove Spikes' characterizations. He asked the judge to wait until after Galli's new murder trial Dec. 14 to sentence his client on the unrelated robbery.
Aaron pleaded guilty to one count of robbery as part of a plea bargain. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a second robbery charge and agreed to recommend his sentence run concur-rently with his murder sentence. But a judge overturned his murder conviction in September and ordered a new trial because the state's star witness - Christopher Galli - basically told people he had lied during Aaron's trial.
"My client would like to speak to the court about this (robbery) case," Sanders said. "But he can't say anything until the murder case is resolved."
Sanders said he feared that if Aaron provided information about the robbery, prosecutors may want to use that to strengthen their murder case against him. "I can't make a sentencing argument. I can't go forward . . . My hands are tied," he told the judge.
But Moffat said Aaron chose to place his attorney in that position and refused to postpone the sentence. In addition to the maximum prison sentence for the second-degree felony, he also ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine and $1,000 restitution.
Spikes said no "firm decision" has been made about whether they will proceed with a new trial for Aaron Galli or drop the murder charge. But when he asked the judge to sentence Galli to prison, Spikes said, "This court may be the final court to sit in judgment of the activities of Aaron Galli."
Sanders said he expects prosecutors to drop the murder charge. "I think that's what this was all about today."
The attorney said he believes the Salt Lake County attorney's office pushed to have Galli sentenced to prison Friday so it would be less "politically damaging" when they drop the murder charge than it would be if Aaron didn't have a prison conviction under his belt.
"Now they can say, "Well, we don't want to waste the county's resources with a trial because he's already been convicted,' " Sanders said. He believes the murder case against Aaron Galli is now "weak as hell" because there are many reasons to question the reliability of Christopher Galli's testimony against his cousin.
Judge Michael Murphy, who overturned the murder conviction, wrote that a "different result" would probably occur at a new trial because of Christopher's statements since the trial.
Sanders denied allegations that Aaron has been manipulating the court system. "They make him sound sophisticated. He's not sophisticated. He's intelligent, but he's not well-educated. He's a kid and he's a scared kid and he's concerned about his future like any other scared kid," he said.
"It's not that he's trying to be macho. It's not that he's trying to manipulate anything."
Aaron Galli is charged with murder in connection with the May 17, 1992, death of chef Merritt Riordan at the Green Parrot Cafe. He pleaded guilty to robbing an Avenues man in his home. Spikes said he and Christopher, wearing masks and armed with a pistol and shotgun, forced their way inside the home, threatened two men and stole $1,000.
One of the victims knew Aaron Galli and identified him.