Columnist Jeff German: Janet Reno mulls death penalty in mob hit

JEFF GERMAN is a senior investigative reporter. His column also appears in the Las Vegas Sun on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He can be reached at 259-4067 or on the Internet at [email protected]

FEDERAL prosecutors in Las Vegas are awaiting word on whether the Justice Department will seek the death penalty for six men charged with the murder of Chicago mob associate Herbie Blitzstein.

Attorney General Janet Reno is making the decision herself in the precedent-setting Nevada case. Prosecutors here never have asked the Justice Department to pursue the death penalty.

Blitzstein, a former lieutenant of the late Chicago mob kingpin, Anthony Spilotro, was killed gangland style Jan. 6, 1997, by Los Angeles and Buffalo mobsters looking to take over Las Vegas street rackets.

In the 1970s and '80s, Blitzstein had been an integral part of Spilotro's criminal operation, which had controlled the Las Vegas rackets for the Chicago mob. But Blitzstein was left vulnerable after Spilotro's slaying in 1986, when the Chicago mob had all but pulled out of Las Vegas.

Blitzstein's murder was committed in the middle of a massive FBI racketeering probe into the Los Angeles mob's stepped-up activities here.

In February, 16 men, including Carmen Milano, the reputed underboss of the Los Angles mob, were charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment. Milano, who has a residence in Las Vegas, has accused the FBI of manufacturing the crimes in the indictment.

Six of those named -- Stephen Cino, Robert Panaro, Peter Vincent Caruso, Alfred Mauriello, Richard Friedman and Antone Davi -- were charged with plotting and carrying out Blitzstein's murder. All remain behind bars.

Cino and Panaro reportedly are "made members" of the Los Angeles and Buffalo crime families, respectively.

Prosecutors have alleged that Panaro gave the ultimate order to kill Blitzstein, an accusation the mob figure and his lawyer, Steve Stein, strongly deny.

On April 17, lawyers for the six defendants traveled to Washington to appear behind closed doors before a special Justice Department committee to argue against the death penalty.

The panel has since made its recommendation in secret to Reno. Members of the Nevada U.S. attorney's Organized Crime Strike Force say they don't even know which way the committee is leaning.

If Reno gives the green light, the death penalty would be pursued upon the convictions of the six defendants.

Any decision won't be made lightly.

In a January 1995 memorandum, Reno outlined elaborate procedures U.S. attorneys across the country must follow when requesting the death penalty.

"The authorization process is designed to promote consistency and fairness," Reno wrote.

The attorney general and her special panel must consider any "mitigating" factors -- such as whether the defendant was under duress or impaired at the time of the killing -- when making their final determination.

How big of a role each of the defendants played in the killing also must be considered.

In this case, some defendants may have mitigating factors that warrant leniency, while others may not.

Reno must look at each death penalty case separately.

Stein, who went back to Washington last month, says the death penalty isn't appropriate here, especially for Panaro, whom he insists did not participate in the planning of Blitzstein's murder.

Furthermore, Stein says, in the past prosecutors have described Blitzstein as someone who had preyed on the people of Las Vegas for years while working for Spilotro's organization.

"Now they turn around and make him a victim and want to kill six more people," Stein says. "I don't understand it.

"Murder is a terrible thing to do. But when you want to impose the ultimate sanction, you should impose it on those who are so anti-social that you must remove them from our society because there is no other choice.

"This is not a factual scenario that falls within that picture."

Attorney Louis Palazzo, who represents Cino, agrees with Stein.

"The death penalty is reserved for people who are considered the worst of the worse and have no way of being rehabilitated," Palazzo says. "The group we have here doesn't meet any of those factors."

Palazzo says John Gotti, reputed boss of New York's feared Gambino crime family, didn't even get the death penalty following his federal conviction a couple of years ago.

Gotti is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for running a murderous criminal enterprise in New York.

As for Cino, Palazzo says, "he doesn't have a harmful bone in his body. The only thing he would kill is a pizza."

Palazzo believes the government included Cino and Panaro in the murder conspiracy as an afterthought to "spice up" the racketeering case, which is proceeding toward trial at a slow pace.

Most don't expect the trial to take place until well into next year.

About 2,000 audio- and videotapes so far have been turned over to the defendants, indicating the wealth of evidence FBI agents collected during the probe.

The investigation, which penetrated deep into the hierarchy of the Los Angeles mob, made use of undercover agents, cooperating witnesses, court-approved wiretaps and hidden cameras and microphones.

It exposed the Los Angeles crime family's ineptness on the streets.

Not since the days of Spilotro has the government mounted such an extensive campaign against the mob in Las Vegas.

And not since those days have prosecutors felt so good about evidence they've obtained in a mob case.

Something tells me that if Janet Reno decides the death penalty is appropriate for Blitzstein's killers, prosecutors will feel even better.

* On a more pleasant note, my father has reached another milestone in his life.

Happy 80th birthday, Dad. We love you.

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