Four plead guilty in outcall-service takeover case

Four accused mobsters facing trial today in an outcall-service takeover case decided instead Friday to plead guilty.

Christiano DeCarlo, Joshua Snellings, Kenneth Byrnes and Anton Nelsen entered a package plea agreement with the federal government rather than face a three-week trial and up to 20 years in prison each.

The four men, who range in age from 21 to 46, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce through threats and violence, as well as counts of aiding and abetting the others.

DeCarlo, the reported leader of the plot, faces between 63 and 78 months in prison on Dec. 3, when he is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro. Nelsen and Byrnes face between 41 and 51 months and Snellings could get between 12 and 18 months.

According to authorities, six men plotted last year to rid Anthony Nastasi of competitors in the outcall service business, going so far as to bring in two alleged hitmen. One of the men, Vinnie Congiusti, was rumored to rid the mob of its headaches, thus earning him the nickname Vinnie Aspirins. One of his tools in trade was reported to be a cordless drill.

Within the past few weeks both Congiusti and the man who called for his help, Mario Stefano, 65, have pleaded guilty in the case. Congiusti faces between 51 and 63 months in prison, Stefano between 70 and 87 months.

During his plea hearing, Stefano denied any desire to see Nastasi's competitors dead. Instead Stefano said he merely hired Congiusti because he was a "rough-looking guy who could get his point across" to Nastasi's competitors.

On Friday the four remaining defendants insisted that Nastasi's competition was diverting telephone calls from his business to theirs and they simply wanted to help Nastasi stop the diversions.

"My position is that of a friend helping a friend whose business was being pilfered," Byrnes said.

Nelsen, who was alleged to have been the second hitman, echoed Byrnes' sentiment, but went further in saying that he had agreed to help his friend through "coercion." Earlier in the hearing, Nelsen told Pro he objected to witness descriptions of him as an "explosives expert."

Pro accepted the guilty pleas after first making sure the defendants were not threatened or coerced into the plea agreement by the government or by each other.

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