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Wednesday, December 08, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Casino dealer triggerman, prosecutor tells U.S. court
By Carri Geer
Review-Journal
A Pahrump casino dealer appeared Tuesday in a Las Vegas courtroom, where a federal prosecutor accused him of being the triggerman in an October 1998 mob hit in New York.
FBI agents from Las Vegas arrested Anthony Greco, 44, on Thursday in Pahrump after a federal indictment charged him with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting death of Joseph "Joey O" Masella.
Greco appeared Tuesday for a detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Roger Hunt, who ruled that Greco will remain in custody and be transferred to New York to be tried in that state.
At the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Ko urged Hunt to keep the defendant behind bars pending a trial in the case. Although others also have been charged in connection with Masella's death, Ko said authorities believe Greco shot the victim.
The prosecutor called Greco both a danger to the community and a flight risk. He said the defendant faces the possibility of a death sentence if convicted in the case and has been living "something akin to a transient lifestyle."
Ko said the Pahrump trailer Greco uses as his residence is owned by the man's girlfriend, who lives in New York, and the home's phone and electric bills are sent to her New York address.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Shari Kaufman disputed Ko's description of her client as a transient. She said he was born on Staten Island in New York and was a lifetime resident of that state before moving to Pahrump, where he has worked for about nine months at Terrible's Town Casino.
The defense attorney also challenged Ko's characterization of the charges against her client.
"Mr. Ko says that he was a triggerman," she said. "The indictment doesn't say that."
In addition, Kaufman said Greco has no prior criminal record.
"It's ridiculous to think that he is not only affiliated with the mob but that he is a hit man," she said.
The New York indictment claims Greco, Vincent Palermo, Westley "The Kid" Paloscio and other unidentified people killed Masella "on or about" Oct. 10, 1998, "for the purpose of gaining entrance to and maintaining and increasing their positions in" the Decavalcante family of La Cosa Nostra, also known as the mafia.
"It doesn't say how he did it," Kaufman told Hunt. "It doesn't say when he did it."
According to the indictment, the Decavalcante crime family is based in New Jersey, and Masella was an associate of the family.
The document claims Palermo has at times worked for the family as a soldier, as a captain of crews based in New York and Florida, and as a boss on the family's ruling panel. The document describes Paloscio as an associate in a New York-based crew of the Decavalcante family.
"Among Paloscio's criminal activities were participation in a murder, operation of an illegal bookmaking business, and participation in a conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods," the indictment alleges.
Palermo and Paloscio were among the multiple defendants indicted last week with Greco.
Hunt said he agreed with Ko's description of Greco as both a danger to the community and a flight risk.
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