Son convicted of murder of father in 2018 in Bronx – NBC New York

NEW YORK – A 44-year-old man was convicted of plotting to kill his father and brother in an attempt to take over the family’s multimillion-dollar real estate empire.

Anthony Zottola Sr. and Himen Ross, an accomplice, were convicted Wednesday, after a six-week federal trial, of conspiracy murder and commission murder of Sylvester Zottola, 71, in a McDonald’s drive-thru at The Bronx on October 4, 2018.

Both face life sentences when convicted.

Sylvester Zottola was shot multiple times in the head and body at the Webster Avenue fast food restaurant in what police initially described as a possible mob attack.

Sylvester Zottola was arrested in June after allegedly shooting a man who pointed a gun at him outside his home, police sources said. About a month later, his son, Salvatore Zottola, 41, was attacked by a gunman outside his Throgs Neck home in July.

According to prosecutors, Sylvester Zottola controlled a residential real estate portfolio worth tens of millions of dollars at the time of his death. His son Anthony Zottola helped run his father’s real estate business by keeping the properties, collecting the rent and helping manage A & S Maintenance, a company jointly owned by Anthony and his brother Salvatore Zottola.

Prosecutors said Anthony Zottola conspired to kill his father and brother so he could take control of the family business and hired a co-conspirator, Busawn Shelton, to kill his father and brother.

Shelton recruited others to commit the murders and together they engaged in a conspiracy to carry out a series of violent attacks on Sylvester and Salvatore Zottola over the course of a year.

Salvatore, who testified at the trial, suffered several violent attacks on his life: on November 26, 2017, a masked individual threatened him with weapons; on December 27, 2017, three men entered his residence, whipped his head with a gun, stabbed him multiple times and slit his throat, a brutal attack he survived; On 11 July 2018, he was shot in the head, chest and hand outside his residence, even surviving the shooting.

“Proven by evidence and testimony during the trial, Zottola had not one, not two, but multiple opportunities to rethink his deadly attempt to assassinate his father. He and the others he recruited chose to continue their savage plot and were successful. Now, instead of living off his father’s millions, his only payday will be federal prison, ”said FBI deputy director in charge Michael Driscoll.

Eventually, a tracking device was placed on Sylvester Zottola’s car, allowing Ross to track him down to McDonald’s on Webster Avenue, where Ross shot the victim to death multiple times.

Prosecutors said Ross and Shelton exchanged text messages soon after the murder, and then Shelton and Anthony Zottola exchanged text messages, informing Anthony that his father had just been killed.

Shelton, who allegedly had ties to the Blood gang, pleaded guilty in August 2022 to conspiracy to contract murder and contract murder. He is awaiting sentencing.

“Over the course of more than a year, the elderly victim, Sylvester Zottola, was harassed, beaten and stabbed, without knowing who had orchestrated the attacks. It was his son, so determined to control the lucrative real estate of the family business. ‘business that hired a gang of hit men to kill his father, ”said the US attorney for the New York Breon Peace District. “For having sentenced his father to violent death, Anthony Zottola and his co-defendant will spend the rest of their lives in the prison they belong to following today’s verdict.”