Citing his "invaluable" aid in the war against the Mafia, a U.S. judge Monday rewarded a once-powerful mob figure who became a major government informer by sentencing him to just five years in prison, despite his admitted involvement in 19 murders.
The sentence meant that the informer, Salvatore Gravano - who had faced up to 20 years in prison under his plea deal and who has already served almost four years - could be released in eight months or less, his lawyer and prison officials said.In sentencing Gravano, a sturdily built 49-year-old also known as Sammy the Bull, Judge I. Leo Glasser of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., told a crowded, hushed courtroom that Gravano's cooperation with the authorities, which included testifying against John Gotti, was "the bravest thing I have ever seen."
The short sentence was a victory for prosecutors, who had pushed hard for leniency for Gravano. Saying that his testimony or information helped win nearly 40 convictions or guilty pleas, they argued that the shorter sentence would encourage other criminals to testify.
But some defense lawyers maintained that that such a move would entice other defendants to concoct false stories, telling prosecutors what they wanted to hear in hopes of winning leniency.
The biggest case in which Gravano testified was the prosecution of Gotti, the flamboyant and previously untouchable boss of the Gambino crime family, who is now serving life in prison for murder and racketeering. Gravano was Gotti's underboss, his No. 2 man, when he decided to abandon his former confederates and become a devastating witness against them and other mob leaders and "soldiers."
"There has never been a defendant of his stature in organized crime who has made the leap he made from one planet to another," Glasser said, explaining that he had to balance Gravano's "remarkable contribution" to battling the Mafia against his "extensive record of criminal activity in the past."
That record included Gravano's participation, by his own admission, in 19 gangland murders since 1970, although Glasser said that Gravano had personally carried out the killing in only one instance. In the others, the judge said, "he aided and abetted or was a member of the conspiracy."
Gravano made no statement before being sentenced Monday for his guilty plea to murder and racketeering charges, but he did not have to, since a U.S. prosecutor had just made a plea on his behalf that was no less intense than that voiced by Gravano's own lawyer.
"Salvatore Gravano has rendered extraordinary, unprecedented, historic assistance to the government," the prosecutor, John Gleeson, said, listing 37 Mafia figures who he said had been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty entirely or partly because on the information Gravano had provided.
In addition to many grand jury appearances, Gravano testified in seven trials, and he would have testified in at least a half-dozen more trials, the prosecutor said, "but for some defendants' decisions to plead guilty."